Pharmacy Perspectives - Winter/Spring 2017 - 9

WINTER

Continued from Page 8

By the time they started a collection, Mort had become a renowned
cardiologist and had co-invented the
implantable cardioverter defibrillator, a
medical device that senses and corrects
abnormal heart rates. The defibrillator
can stop heart attacks and will restart a
stopped heart, and about 800,000 people in the U.S. have had them implanted
to prevent sudden cardiac death.
Toby is a nurse and an advocate for
substance abuse treatment. She has an
honorary doctorate from Ben-Gurion
University in Israel, and she helped
the university develop a curriculum
about how to treat addictions.

ART AT CU ANSCHUTZ
Since opening in 2012, the Art Gallery
at the Fulginiti Pavilion has become a
hidden gem. The privately funded gallery has put on 16 major exhibits and
welcomed more than 30,000 visitors.
Matthew Wynia, MD, directs the
Center for Bioethics and Humanities
and sometimes is asked why the
medical campus has an art gallery. He
believes there is a valuable connection
between art and medicine. Wynia
said art can provoke conversations
that bridge cultural divides and that
studying art helps medical students and
doctors improve their observational
skills. Finally, it helps prevent burnout.
"Being in an art gallery is a healing
thing for people whose jobs are filled
with stress," Wynia said.

SPRING 2017

Mort Mower, MD

A

s the co-inventor
of the Automatic
Implantable
Cardioverter
Defibrillator (AICD)
for prophylaxis against sudden
cardiac death and the inventor of
Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy
(CRT) for treatment of congestive
heart failure, Dr. Mower has saved
millions of lives. Implanted in the
body, the ICD constantly monitors
the rate and rhythm of the heart
and delivers electrical current when
the heart rate is abnormal. For that
device, he was inducted into the
National Inventors Hall of Fame in
Akron, OH in 2002. CRT has now
become a mainstay of treatment for
severe heart failure.
Recently, he was honored
with the Prince Mahidol Award
Laureate in the field of medicine by

Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorm
of Thailand. The Prince Mahidol
Award obtains its name from His
Royal Highness Prince Mahidol
of Songkla, "Father of Modern
Medicine and Public Health of
Thailand". His Royal Highness
received a Certificate of Public
Health and a Doctor of Medicine
(Cum Laude) degree in 1928 from
Harvard University. After returning
to Thailand, Prince Mahidol taught
preventive and social medicine to
final year medical students at Siriraj
Medical School, and then worked
as a resident doctor at McCormick
Hospital in Chiang Mai.
Two Prince Mahidol Awards are
conferred annually upon individuals
or institutions that have demonstrated exemplary contributions to
the advancement of medical and
public health services for humanity

throughout the world. The Prince
Mahidol Award Foundation was
established in commemoration
of the 100 year anniversary of the
birth of His Royal Highness Prince
Mahidol of Songkla on Jan. 1, 1992.
Recipients of the award are selected by the International Award
Committee, which comprises a
number of world-renowned experts in the fields of medicine and
public health.
Since Mort's retirement from
Johns Hopkins University and Sinai
Hospital in Baltimore as an eminent
cardiologist, the Mowers moved to
Denver. Mort currently serves as professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins
University, professor of physiology
and biophysics at Howard University,
and distinguished clinical professor
of medicine at the University of
Colorado School of Medicine.

Photo on the right captures Robin,
Mort and Toby Mower flanking
Pierre-Auguste Renoir's The Young
Mother oil on canvas.

www.ucdenver.edu/pharmacy

9
http://www.ucdenver.edu/pharmacy
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pharmacy Perspectives - Winter/Spring 2017
