Eugene Braunwald

Who is Eugene Braunwald?

Eugene Braunwald is an American cardiologist.

Braunwald was born to Jewish parents Wilhelm Braunwald and Clara Wallach in Vienna.

Braunwald was inspired to pursue a career in cardiology after practicing in the Bellevue Cardiology Clinic, under Ludwig Eichna, during his time as a medical student at New York University. He also attended several Cardiology courses in Mexico City, at the Instituto Ignacio Chavez. He always thought that the Mexican School of Cardiology was above any other. "We have the technology but they have the practice. The best book of cardiology is the patient itself," he always argued.

After being at the National Institutes of Health, he was then recruited to the University of California, San Diego where from 1968-1972 he was the founding Chair of the Department of Medicine. He has since been at the Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard University, in Boston, MA.

Dr. Braunwald has over 1000 publications in peer-reviewed journals. His work has dramatically expanded knowledge of heart disease in the area of congestive heart failure, coronary artery disease, and valvular heart disease. He is the editor of the premier cardiology textbook, Braunwald's Heart Disease, which is now in its 9th edition. Dr. Braunwald was instrumental in running the TIMI studies, which developed the concepts of thrombosis superimposed on atherosclerosis as the pathological bases for acute myocardial infarction.