- Willem Johan Kolff
Infobox Person
image_size = 150px
name = Willem Johan Kolff
caption =
birth_date = birth date and age|1911|2|14
birth_place =Leiden ,Netherlands
death_date =
death_place =
occupation = Physician, InventorDr. Willem Johan (Pim) Kolff (born
February 14 ,1911 ) is a pioneer ofhemodialysis as well as in the field ofartificial organ s.The Netherlands
Born in
Leiden ,Netherlands , Kolff studiedmedicine in his hometown atLeiden University , and continued as a resident ininternal medicine atGroningen University . One of his first patients here was a 22-year old man who was slowly dying of renal failure. This prompted Kolff to perform research on artificial renal function replacement. Also during his residency, Kolff organised the firstblood bank in Europe (in 1940).During
World War II , he was based in Kampen, where he was active in the resistance against the German occupation. Simultaneously, Kolff developed the first functioning artificial kidney. He treated his first patient in 1943, and in 1945 he was first able to save a patient's life with hemodialysis treatment. In 1946 he obtained a PhD degree atUniversity of Groningen on the subject. It marks the start of a treatment that has saved the lives of millions of acute orchronic renal failure patients ever since.USA
Shortly afterwards - in 1950 - he left the Netherlands, sensing opportunity in the USA. At the
Cleveland Clinic , he was involved in the development ofheart-lung machine s to maintain heart and pulmonal function during cardiac surgery. He also improved on his dialysis machine.He became head of the
University of Utah 's Division of Artificial Organs and Institute for Biomedical Engineering in 1967, where he was involved in the development of theartificial heart , the first of which was implanted in 1982.Impact
Kolff has to be considered as the Father of Artificial Organs, and is now regarded one of the most important physicians of the twentieth century. He obtained more than 12 honorary doctorates at universities all over the world, and more than 120 international rewards, among them the
AMA Scientific Achievement Award in 1982, theJapan Prize in 1986, theAlbert Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research in 2002, and theRuss Prize in 2003. He was a co- nominee withWilliam H. Dobelle for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2003.References
* Paul Heiney. "The Nuts and Bolts of Life: Willem Kolff and the Invention of the Kidney Machine". Sutton Publishing, 2003. ISBN 0-7509-2896-4.
* Herman Broers. "Inventor for Life: The Story of W. J. Kolff, Father of Artificial Organs". B&V Media, 2007. ISBN 90-78430-01-X.External links
* [http://www.lib.utah.edu/spc/mss/ms654/654.html Kolff's papers] at the University of Utah
* [http://www.willemkolffstichting.nl/ Willem Kolff Stichting] - Kampen, The Netherlands foundation honouring the life and work of Kolff
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