Location

Holiday Inn, Manatee Rooms A & B

Start Date

29-4-1993 1:00 PM

End Date

29-4-1993 4:00 PM

Description

The transfer of the NASA/JPL technology started with a phone call from three physicians at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center (CSMC) in Los Angeles in the fall of 1983. The three physicians a surgeon, Dr. Warren Grundfest and two cardiologists, Drs. Frank Litvack and James Forrester called me in a serendipitous manner. They were calling local institutions to inquire about the availability of excimer laser technology to continue experimental studies they had started at CSMC and then continued with Argonne National Laboratories in Illinois. They were looking for a site in the area to continue their experiments on excimer laser ultraviolet radiation to ablate coronary blockages in the heart. CSMC was funded to do research by the NIH and later through private donations from hospital support groups. After discussing their ideas, I suggested they visit me at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). I immediately notified our biomedical program manager at JPL, Dr. Ed Beckenbach, to inform him of the meeting. At the meeting the physicians went over their current results and presented their proposed plan for collaboration. Since my group had pioneered the early development of excimer lasers and had several home-built as well as commercial excimer lasers, Dr. Beckenbach thought that this could be an ideal collaboration. Dr. Beckenbach went back to NASA Headquarters and discussed the proposed collaboration. He then notified us that, if we wrote a short proposal, we could obtain funding from the NASA Technology Utilization Office. The proposal was submitted and Dr. Beckenbach provided a discretionary charge number to begin collaboration until the proposal was formally approved and funds sent to JPL. Thus began a two and one half year collaboration between NASA, JPL, CSMC, and the NIH to study laser tissue interactions to define a suitable laser angioplasty system.

Comments

30 Years of Progress, Spinoffs from Space Technology

Session Chairman: Doris J. Rouse, Director, NASA Technology Applications Team, Research Triangle Institute

Session Organizer: Don Capone, Southern Technology Application Center, Kennedy Space Center

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Apr 29th, 1:00 PM Apr 29th, 4:00 PM

Paper Session III-C - Outer Space to Inner Space: The Story of the Transfer of NASA Exclimer Laser Technology to Medical Angioplasty Projects

Holiday Inn, Manatee Rooms A & B

The transfer of the NASA/JPL technology started with a phone call from three physicians at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center (CSMC) in Los Angeles in the fall of 1983. The three physicians a surgeon, Dr. Warren Grundfest and two cardiologists, Drs. Frank Litvack and James Forrester called me in a serendipitous manner. They were calling local institutions to inquire about the availability of excimer laser technology to continue experimental studies they had started at CSMC and then continued with Argonne National Laboratories in Illinois. They were looking for a site in the area to continue their experiments on excimer laser ultraviolet radiation to ablate coronary blockages in the heart. CSMC was funded to do research by the NIH and later through private donations from hospital support groups. After discussing their ideas, I suggested they visit me at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). I immediately notified our biomedical program manager at JPL, Dr. Ed Beckenbach, to inform him of the meeting. At the meeting the physicians went over their current results and presented their proposed plan for collaboration. Since my group had pioneered the early development of excimer lasers and had several home-built as well as commercial excimer lasers, Dr. Beckenbach thought that this could be an ideal collaboration. Dr. Beckenbach went back to NASA Headquarters and discussed the proposed collaboration. He then notified us that, if we wrote a short proposal, we could obtain funding from the NASA Technology Utilization Office. The proposal was submitted and Dr. Beckenbach provided a discretionary charge number to begin collaboration until the proposal was formally approved and funds sent to JPL. Thus began a two and one half year collaboration between NASA, JPL, CSMC, and the NIH to study laser tissue interactions to define a suitable laser angioplasty system.

 

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