OHSU remembers Albert Starr, M.D.

Albert Starr, M.D.

OHSU mourns the passing of Albert Starr, M.D., a giant in cardiovascular medicine whose astonishingly productive career spanned more than half a century. (OHSU)

The Oregon Health & Science University community mourns the passing of Albert Starr, M.D., a giant in the field of cardiovascular medicine whose groundbreaking career spanned more than half a century. He died Dec. 11 at age 98.

Starr is best known as a cardiovascular surgeon who co-invented and in 1960 implanted the world’s first artificial heart valve at OHSU, at that time the University of Oregon Medical School.

“Albert Starr embodied the highest qualities of a physician, an innovator and a teacher. Through his commitment, he touched the lives of hundreds of thousands of patients and families over the years,” said Steve Stadum, J.D., interim president of OHSU. “Even after co-inventing and implanting the world’s first artificial heart valve, Dr. Starr continued to revolutionize the field, partnering with like-minded scientists, surgeons and medical device engineers around the globe to fine-tune and improve his work and to discover new and better ways to heal hearts.”

Physician

Starr was born on June 1, 1926, in New York City and educated in New York public schools.

He chose to attend Columbia University. At the time, Columbia teemed with physicists working on the Manhattan Project. It was the early days of atomic physics, and he considered both physics and economics as a career, but medicine won his heart.

“Medicine became my music, so to speak,” he said in a 2006 interview with the OHSU Oral History Project.

After graduating from Columbia in 1946, he enrolled in the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons. Starr earned his medical degree in just three years, graduating in 1949.

In 1950, Starr completed an internship at Johns Hopkins Hospital under Alfred Blalock, M.D., FACS, a pioneer in treating shock and “blue baby” syndrome. That year, he began a residency in general and thoracic surgery at two New York hospitals — now NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue and New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center — until he was drafted for surgical service during the Korean War.

In Korea, he started as a battalion surgeon near the front lines, at times surrounded by enemy forces. Later he transferred to the 8076 Mobile Army Surgical Hospital, where he honed his skills in surgery. In 1953, Starr resumed training in New York, completing his residency in 1957.

He served as assistant surgeon at Columbia University until 1957, when he was recruited to establish the first open-heart surgery program at the University of Oregon Medical School. 

Innovator

In 1958, he met retired fluids engineer M. Lowell Edwards, who was seeking help developing an artificial heart. Starr convinced Edwards to begin by creating an artificial mitral valve. 

Two years later, Starr performed the world’s first successful artificial mitral valve implant at OHSU in a 52-year-old man with end-stage mitral valve disease. Newspapers around the world dubbed the surgery “miraculous.” That same year, Edwards incorporated Edwards Laboratories (now Edwards Lifesciences) to manufacture and market the Starr-Edwards valve. The valve design has since been implanted in more than 800,000 people around the world.

In 1963, as head of cardiopulmonary surgery, Starr performed the world’s first successful triple valve replacement. He led OHSU’s heart surgery program until 1964, when he was tapped to lead a joint cardiac surgery program for both OHSU and Providence Health System in Portland.  

Starr performed Oregon’s first heart transplant at OHSU in 1985, establishing the state’s first and most comprehensive heart transplantation program. 

“Dr. Starr transformed the approach to caring for cardiovascular disease,” said Joaquin Cigarroa, M.D., MSCAI, director of the OHSU Knight Cardiovascular Institute and professor of medicine (cardiovascular medicine) in the OHSU School of Medicine. “The invention of the artificial heart valve increased the quality of life and quantity of life for people around the world."

Teacher

In 1986, Starr was appointed director of the Providence Health System Heart & Vascular Institute, and in 2004 was named director of bioscience research and development. He mentored surgeons-in-training, and he also invited high school students to see him perform heart surgeries to inspire the next generation.

“I think it’s really good for them to understand how much we don’t know as well as what we do, so they can know what contributions they can make,” he once said.

Starr returned full time to OHSU in 2011 as distinguished professor of cardiovascular medicine and as special adviser to former School of Medicine Dean Mark Richardson, M.D., M.B.A., and past OHSU President Joe Robertson, M.D., M.B.A. He remained a professor emeritus of surgery at OHSU until his death. 

Starr continued to work closely with Edwards Lifesciences for many years, and helped expand OHSU’s use of minimally invasive approaches to heart valve repair and replacement.

Commonly known as transcatheter heart valve procedures, this minimally invasive approach to heart valve repair and replacement inserts a miniaturized artificial valve, or tiny parts of an artificial valve, through a catheter that's connected to a blood vessel. Today, patients can often go home from the hospital within a day of undergoing a transcatheter heart valve procedure, compared with the weeks of hospital care that can be needed after open-heart surgery. 

In September 2012, Starr was named chairman of a new cardiovascular institute at OHSU, the Knight Cardiovascular Institute, established through a $125 million philanthropic investment from Nike co-founder and chairman Phil Knight and his wife, Penny.

The OHSU Knight Cardiovascular Institute is an integrated center of translational research, clinical care, education and disease prevention dedicated to becoming the world’s best at translating research into clinical innovations to benefit patients by attacking heart disease from every angle, before conception and throughout a person’s lifetime.  

Starr assisted in the launch of the institute, formerly serving as its executive chairman.

“As a founding member of the KCVI, Dr. Starr continued to share his creativity and passion for innovation,” Cigarroa said. “His contributions on the transition toward the development and implantation of catheter-based valves helped position OHSU as a national and global leader.”