birth_place nationality field birth_date article_title name occupation
tarentum , pennsylvania american medical technology 25 december 1933 m. stephen heilman
 marlin stephen heilman inventor , emergency room physician , entrepreneur
m. stephen heilman

marlin stephen `` doc '' heilman -lrb- born december 25 , 1933 -rrb- is an american physician , entrepreneur and inventor .
among other things , he is credited with inventions -lrb- u.s. patents and applications -rrb- in the fields of contrast enhanced medical imaging , the first implantable cardioverter defibrillator or icd , the first wearable defibrillator or lifevest defibrillator , and heart assist devices .
his first inventions , a flow controlled angiographic injector and pressure tolerant disposable angiographic syringes , advanced the fields of radiology and cardiology by improving the diagnostic image quality and eliminating the imaging risk of blood borne disease transmission from patient to patient .
he founded medrad inc , now part of bayer healthcare , to manufacture and supply these imaging devices on a worldwide basis .
in 2013 , an estimated 65 million medical imaging procedures were performed usning medrad products .
medrad and its subsidiary intec systems , in collaboration with drs. michel mirowski and morton mower developed the world 's first implantable cardioverter defibrillator or icd .
icds prevent the most common form of heart disease death , namely sudden cardiac death or scd .
according to hauser , in 2009 , 140,000 patients received their initial icd device and another 30,000 to 40,000 patients received icd replacements .
in 2014 , heilman and his vascor coworkers expect to complete the development of a failsafe non-rotary implantable counterpulsation heart assist device that will be powered by a transcutaneous electrical transmission system or tets .
heilman lives with his wife , drusie , in the western pennsylvania countryside near pittsburgh .
they have 5 children and 13 grandchildren .
