The Jury, decided to jointly award the 2005 Prize for Lifetime Achievement in Scientific Research to Leonard A. Cobb, Peter J. Schwartz and Hein J.J. Wellens for their contribution to scientific discovery and clinical innovation in the field of Sudden Cardiac Death.
Dr Cobb has had a sustained interest in sudden cardiac death and pre-hospital emergency care since the late 1960's. He was the principal investigator and founding medical director for Seattle's Medic I Program and served in that role for nearly 25 years. Over this period he investigated service and patient factors affecting the outcome of resuscitation and has directed considerable effort to a better understanding of sudden cardiac death. Dr Cobb and his colleagues were among the first to advocate the application of a tiered response for medical emergencies, community CPR instruction, and the application of advanced airway techniques in the EMS system. Additionally, a number of out-of-hospital interventions have been evaluated in randomised clinical trials. The Seattle database encompasses over 30 years of experience in managing cardiac arrest and myocardial infarction, and all patients who have survived out-of-hospital cardiac arrest are followed up regularly. These endeavours have led to an improved understanding of sudden cardiac death and its prevention.
Professor Peter J. Schwartz very well focused on a single idea for a long period, developing his research from a primitive start to full maturity and highly complicated cases from which we learnt a lot.
Professor Hein J.J. Wellens is internationally recognized as a leader of modern electrophysiology. He has made seminal contributions relating to sudden cardiac death from the perspective of cardiac arrhythmology, myocardial infarction and heart failure and cardiac electrophysiology. He has trained more than 200 physicians from all over the world to become cardiologist, many of them becoming leaders in cardiology and cardiac electrophysiology in their own country. Hein Wellens is a great teacher.