As lavenderviolet’s link states, Jarvik has been working for a number of years on a new, smaller type of heart pump. While I’m pretty sure that he dips (possibly heavily) into his compensation for daily living expenses and nice, upper-class stuff, I don’t think it’s outside the realm of possibility that he uses some of that money to aid in his research (you ever try to get a medical grant? it’s easier just to spend your own money than try to get blood from that rock).
And Subway Prophet… I honestly don’t know. While I would think there would be sterilization issues, it is an awful lot of money to just bury. They always made such a big deal out of the fact that Clark’s heart was still functioning just fine when he died, but the thought is a little morbid.
My brother had the following reaction to this commercial: “Y’know what, JR? What they’re really saying in this ad is *‘Hi, I’m Bob Jarvik: Take care of your heart health; do you want to end up having to use one of my artifical hearts? I didn’t think so…’ * Never mind that the average guy’s high cholesterol is not that likely to lead to needing an actual transplant…”
Jarvik’s peddling an anti-cholesterol drug and he may be using the proceeds to buy a house in the Caribbean. So what? Whether or not his artificial heart was immensely successful or a raging failure, his goal was noble: He wanted to help people who had run out of options. If he enriched himself in the process, bully for him.
If you’re going to get indignant about people selling out, how about picking on Peyton Manning? Is there a product the man DOESN’T peddle?
Yes, the late childrens entertainer and ventriloquist.
The University of Utah was working on a similar idea, but Paul’s patent got in the way. They asked Winchell to donate his patent to the university and he agreed, then the school stiffed him on any credit for the invention.
You’ve still really provided no explanation whatsoever for why you have such a massive problem with Jarvik.
Criticizing Jarvik for the fact that his rather early, pioneering work in artificial hearts doesn’t keep people alive very long (people who’re generally very, very sick anyway) is like criticizing the Wright Brothers because the Flyer couldn’t do the New York-LA leg twice a day like a 767 can. And criticizing Jarvik for pitching Lipitor makes no sense at all; what, is the guy not allowed to make money anymore?
What exactly would have satisfied you? Fine print at the bottom of the screen describing the pros and cons of his invention, which wasn’t even what the commercial was selling?
Oh, jeeh – you’re ignorant! At Kitty Hawk in 1903, Charles Lindbergh flew it fifteen miles on a thimbleful of corn oil. Singlehandedly won us the Civil War, it did.
I don’t know one way or the other, so I don’t assume anything.
I don’t have a problem with Jarvik and his work. What does concern me is when health care practitioners or researchers are seen as pitchmen for commercial products. In the case of research, we already have enough public suspicion regarding the validity of studies financed by for-profit entities. Regardless of their personal accomplishments, I don’t think physicians, researchers, dentists, chiropractors, naturopaths or anyone else involved in health care should shill for a specific product.
Maybe the company that makes one of Lipitor’s chief competitors, Crestor, could wheel 93-year-old retired heart surgery pioneer Michael DeBakey out to pitch their product. :rolleyes:
Thought some more about it. I’m not sure I understand the outrage. The ad isn’t selling back-alley artificial hearts, it’s selling cholesterol medicine. Jarvik’s role here isn’t so much that he designs machines that pump blood, so much as that he really really really understands how the circulatory system works.
Even if his artificial heart design is completely wonky, that doesn’t necessarily diminish his knowledge of cardiology. (It also doesn’t necessarily suggest that he has a complete understanding of the liver’s role in cholesterol management, and how Liptor affects this, but that’s not the OP’s complaint.)
Actually, he’s not. And it’s pretty well buried too. He ony recieved an MD from the school he was working at AFTER he started his work (and failing out of US medical schools).
And if you had read down a little further in your own cite, you would have seen the following:
Never mind the fact that the very first word in your cite is “Physician.”
Also? “Failing out” /= “immediate plans were stalled when mediocre grades prevented him from acceptance into an American medical school” and frankly it’s insulting to imply such.
Citeing HIS OWN website ain’t exactly the most reliable source, ya know? If I put on my website “Professor of Business” doesn’t necessarily make it on the 100% up-and-up.
Uh… don’t think it’s a bit odd that he only got an MD AFTER he became a DIRECTOR of and institute at the school he was working at, which at the time was bringing in significant notoriety and funds to the school.
No Liscence, You’re not allowed to hold yourself out as a Doctor. That’s the Law.
Not sure how it’s insulting to the guy regarding “failing” out. He couldn’t continue on his educational path due to poor (mediocre) grades. That means you are not allowed to continue on his chosen path to an MD due to not making sufficiently high marks. To the rest of the non politically-correct universe, this is failing.
Having to leave the country in order to get a degree after not being able to be accepted in the United States? This is called getting around said failure.
He’s made a career out of self promotion at the cost of (arguably) other people lives. Remember all those times he was in scrubs at the press conferences for his heart patients back in the 80’s. yeah. He’s not a surgeon. He wasn’t the one cutting, an actual surgeon was. Wasn’t even allowed.
I didn’t understand too much of the OP’s anger, but I do agree that Dr. Jarvik comes off as a particular douch-bag as he paddles his little kayak around the Straits of Juan de Fuca or wherever the hell he is.
I don’t mean to diminish his career achievements in creating the artificial heart and it’s a clinically important advance, but I don’t see any reason why Dr Jarvik has any particular reason to be mouthing-off about Lipitor. In reality, I think that Pfizer scared senseless over the fact that plenty of other statin drugs that are of comparable effectiveness to Lipitor (especially at higher doses) are off of or coming off of patent and Pfizer is desperate to create name-recognition for Lipitor and convince people to continue to shell out the big-bucks for a medication of likely nominal additional value.
And for that, Dr. Jarvik is a tool, or at least a simple machine like a ramp, lever, or pulley.
He didn’t fail out of medical school. The medical schools to which he applied didn’t consider his GPA to be good enough for acceptance. That doesn’t mean he was a poor student by any means; a GPA of 3.75 may be too low for some medical schools and a GPA of 4.0 won’t gain you admittance anywhere if your MCAT score isn’t high enough.
Also, the medical schools of other countries are not automatically inferior to those of the United States nor does obtaining a degree in another country make him any less brilliant at his chosen career. Jane Goodall didn’t go to university for her PhD, is she any less of an expert on chimpanzees for that lack?
You’ve claimed that his career has “cost other people’s lives”. That is tantamount to an accusation of multiple counts of murder. What evidence to you have?
Finally, there are those other than sugeons who wear scrubs in an operating theatre. Like, everyone else in the room.
Okay… let’s try this slowly. We’ll start with the educational background. Your own cite, which is apparently good enough to cut-and-paste selections from to support your own theory, refers to him as a “physician.” It also clearly states that he received his medical degree in 1976. If you would like to follow that timeline, it looks something like this (go back to YOUR OWN CITE for this information):
BA in zoology from Syracuse University in 1968 –> two years at University of Bologna in Italy (no mention that he graduated) –> MA in occupational biomechanics from NYU in 1971 (not bad- a Masters earned in essentially a year, so you figure some of those Italian courses transferred over) –> M.D. from the University of Utah in 1976 (again, not bad- a medical degree in 5 years while working full time in cutting-edge research) –> honorary doctorate from Syracuse University in 1983 –> honorary doctorate from Hahnemann University in 1985.
Now, let’s look at your claim that he was director of the institute when he received his MD. Again, from your cite:
So, he started working at the institute after receiving an MA in occupational biomechanics… one would think that his educational background qualified him for an assistant design engineer position. Parsing out some of the rest of the history provided, it appears he began working on a pre-existing design that eventually turned into the Jarvik 3. Then…
So in 1976, the same year he received his MD, he was appointed VP of a company that didn’t appear to have ties to the University other than it was founded by Jarvik’s boss. He worked as a VP for five years, and was promoted.
I’m failing to see the issue here. I’m also failing to see how he could be “bringing in significant notoriety and funds to the school” when Clark’s transplant didn’t happen until 1982, six years after Jarvik received his MD.
I’m sure there are a lot of PhDs who would be very, very surprised to hear that. Never mind that he attained the title not once, by three times academically and has every right to call himself, and have other people call him, doctor (please let’s not start an argument about whether honorary doctorate recipients can call themselves doctor).
Now, I have no idea about the current state of his license. He may be licensed in another state, he may be lapsed, he may be the victim of a horrible, horrible computer glitch. But just to play devil’s advocate: can you tell me where in the advertisement that this thread is purportedly about it is stated that Dr. Jarvik is a medically licensed doctor? He is a doctor, no doubt about that. Three times over. But again, there is no where in that ad where he (or anyone) says “HEY!! THIS GUY IS A DOCTOR! LISTEN TO HIM!!!” so I can’t see why his license (or lack thereof) should be an issue.
It’s insulting because it’s not true. You can’t say someone “failed out of medical school” when they weren’t actually admitted yet. It would be like me putting in a resignation at a job I hadn’t been hired for. The application to medical school is rigorous, and I will not fault anyone for missing out the first go-round because of “mediocre” grades (incidentally, mediocre in this instance could mean something as simple as a 3.65 average instead of a 3.99). Plus, he was coming directly from a BA degree. How many undergrads do as well as they are capable of? He obviously did just fine getting his MA and, eventually, his MD. The fact that he needed to take a little time to prove himself academically shouldn’t be labelled as a failure, but rather (AS YOUR OWN CITE STATES) “putting his plans on hold.”
Except he didn’t get a degree out of the country. He went for two years, returned to the US, and pursued and completed two degrees, including an MD. Applications to medical school are accepted once a year. So instead of sitting on his ass for a year before he could apply again, he went elsewhere to pursue his academic interests, then came back. Are you implying that European medical schools are somehow sub-par? I would be very, very careful if I were you.
The hell? He’s made a career out of finding new ways to prolong lives. The fact that his first attempt wasn’t what he’d anticipated doesn’t make him a failure. He increased the survival rate of artificial heart recipients by a factor of 100 (someone check my math on that, please- the cite states that the longest-lived patient prior to that Jarvik 7 lasted 60 hours, and the longest-lived Jarvik patient lasted 620 days).
Now, while I can’t prove it (nor can you disprove it), I would imagine that he was in the operating room during at least the first implantations. No surgeon is going to implant a device that is brand-spanking-new to them if the inventor is an MD and can stand by. Did he have his hands physically in the patient’s chests? Likely not. But it’s not outside the realm of possibility that he was scrubbed in.
I’m not getting why you and WS have such a hard-on for this guy. I would also like to point out that the year he received his MD and was appointed VP of Symbion HE TURNED THIRTY FUCKING YEARS OLD. He was thirty six when the Jarvik 7 was implanted for the first time. What exactly have you accomplished?
Actually, we do. We, the general public, watch Grey’s Anatomy. LVADs were an essential part of last season’s storyline. We even know that they have wires that shouldn’t be cut, ever.
The commercial rubbed me the wrong way, too though. Not as much as it did the OP nor for quite the same reasons, but definitely a little. It feels odd to have him as a pharmaceutical pitchmen. I miss “I’m not a doctor, but I play one on TV”
Jane Goodall went to University of Cambridge, an internationally renound school. And I don’t think that she went there because she was unable to make the grades at any other school.
Whoa, there… I said “Arugably” and let me say why. Rushing something that does not work as intended, and in fact has since been banned for it’s original use (permanent replacement) is IMHO costing people lives. The FDA has banned his product after most of the people died within 6 months, usually after much complications. I’d say ifthe FDA says it’s bad, that’s good enough for me.
Yes, but they’re generally not holding themselves out as surgeons either. What I have a problem with is the general misdirection he uses to other ends.
