William P. Murphy Jr.
William P. Murphy Jr. (born November 11, 1923) is a medical doctor and inventor of medical devices including collaborating on a flexible sealed blood bag used for blood transfusions. He is the son of the American physician William Parry Murphy who shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology for Medicine in 1934,[1] and Harriett Adams, the first licensed female dentist in Massachusetts.[2]
William P. Murphy Jr. | |
|---|---|
 Murphy on his 100 ton steam ship. | |
| Born | November 11, 1923 Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Citizenship | United States |
| Occupation | Medical Doctor, inventor, CEO |
| Parent(s) | William Parry Murphy Harriett Adams |
Education
Murphy graduated from Harvard University in 1946 with a major in pre-medicine and a minor in architecture. He received his M.D. in 1947 from the University of Illinois and also studied physiologic instrumentation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1947 to 1948.
Career[3]
Murphy practiced medicine for a short time as an intern at St. Francis Hospital in Honolulu and later, at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston (now Brigham & Women’s Hospital). While at St. Francis, he developed his first medical invention—a projector for presenting full-size x-rays to large audiences. Murphy and the other interns were regularly required to show x-rays of their patients to doctors. To simplify this task, Murphy created a projector that was capable of showing a full-size x-ray on the screen and was easy to use—quite an accomplishment at that time, since a prompt means for converting x-rays to transparencies did not exist.
Murphy's next contribution to the medical world coincided with the Korean War. The U.S. Army first came to Murphy while he was working with a team of doctors in Boston on the first dialysis machines, a program the Army supported because of concerns over exposure to radiation from the Atomic bomb. An offshoot of this work was the refinement of flexible bags to contain blood during transfusions, which offered many advantages to previously used bottles. Developed with Carl Walter, the bags preserve red blood cells and proteins and ensure that the contents are not exposed to air. In 1952, Murphy joined the U.S. Public Health Service as a blood transfusion consultant, and went to Korea to perform transfusions on soldiers injured in battle.
In 1957, he founded his first company, Medical Development Corporation. The company, which focused on building research instruments, eventually grew into Cordis Corporation, and is now a Johnson & Johnson company. Cordis gave Murphy the resources to create a number of today's standard medical devices, including the first physiologic cardiac pacemaker; the widely used hollow fiber artificial kidney; the first disposable medical procedural trays; the first motor-driven angiographic injectors; and the first disposable catheters.
Murphy's physiologic cardiac pacemaker—which is used to treat heart block—senses what a patient's heart needs and provides suitable stimulation so that the heart can function normally. As more doctors began to use implantable pacemakers, it became clear that there needed to be a way to alter the function of the pacemakers while they were implanted. This led Murphy and his team to develop pacemakers that could be programmed externally and, ultimately, to develop the first DDD (dual chamber demand) pacemaker (1980s).
Murphy's motor-driven, high-pressure angiographic injectors are used for injecting a small amount of radiographic contrast (a solution containing iodine, which is easily visualized with x-ray images) into select vessels in the body. The images that are produced, called an angiogram, accurately reveal the extent and severity of blockages. The disposable, torque-controlled vascular catheters—a related invention, created with colleague Robert Stevens—allow for easy entry into specific vessels, and are a sterile one-time use product.
While at Cordis, Murphy found it difficult to obtain the appropriate quantities and types of materials needed to complete his prototypes. To overcome this, he started Small Parts, Inc., a Miami, FL-based company that provides high quality materials and tools to engineers—in any amount—to help facilitate completion of projects. The company, well-known throughout the medical and engineering communities, is one of several companies founded by Murphy and among 30 companies that emerged from Cordis. In 1986, Murphy, together with colleague John Sterner, purchased Hyperion, Inc. Also based in Miami, Hyperion designs, manufactures and markets medical laboratory diagnostic devices.
Murphy is currently the Chairman of the Board of Directors at U.S. Stem Cell, formerly Bioheart.
U.S. Patents[4]
Murphy holds 17 U.S. patents issued between 1952 and 1980.
| Patent # | Year Issued | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 2,596,819 | 1952 | Change Speed Apparatus |
| 2,649,299 | 1953 | Spring Scale |
| 2,876,496 | 1959 | Process for Making Tubes |
| 3,013,656 | 1961 | Disposable Medical Trays |
| 3,033,038 | 1962 | Surgical Manometer |
| 3,048,192 | 1962 | Surgical Valve |
| 3,101,085 | 1963 | Alternating Tourniquet System |
| 3,105,511 | 1963 | Infusion Safety Valve |
| 3,152,202 | 1964 | Tapered End Plastic Tube |
| 3,122,136 | 1964 | Catheter Pressure Standard |
| 3,140,714 | 1964 | Blood Separation Method* |
| 3,246,646 | 1966 | Pivoted Vaginal Speculum |
| 3,253,595 | 1966 | Cardiac Pacer Electrode System** |
| 3,625,201 | 1971 | Tester for Standby Pacing |
| 3,620,220 | 1971 | Cardiac Pacer with Redundant Power Supply |
| 4,211,597 | 1980 | Method for Making Artificial Kidney*** |
| 4,231,871 | 1980 | Artificial Kidney & Method for Making Same*** |
* Walter B. Dandliker, PhD Coinventor
** J. Walter Keller Coinventor
*** BJ. Lipps Coinventor
Publications
He co-authored nearly 30 medical publications and helped to establish several professional organizations such as FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), a non-profit group dedicated to inspiring young people's interest in science, technology and engineering, founded by his friend Dean Kamen.
| Publication Title | Authors | Publication / Publisher | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| "Portable Projector for Roentgenograms" | Dillion and Murphy | Am. J. of Roent. & Ray., Vol. LXI #6 | June 1949 |
| "Sterile Lancets for Blood Sampling" | Walter, Murphy, and Comploier | J. of A.M.A., 148 | March 1952 |
| "A Closed Gravity Technique for the Preservation of Whole Blood in ACD Solution" | Utilizing Plastic Equipment | Walter and Murphy S.G.&O., #94 | June 1952. |
| "The Retardation of Clotting of Whole Blood on Contact with Stainless Steel" | Walter, Murphy, Jessiman, and Ahara | Surgical Forum | 1952 |
| "Use of an Artificial Kidney" | Murphy, Swan, Walter, Weller and Merrill | J. Lab. & CI. Med., 4D #3 | September 1952 |
| "Report of Blood Study Team Activities in the Far East” | Sproul, Murphy, Warrens and Sack | 19 June to 30 July 1953 | |
| "Serum Hepatitis from Pooled Irradiated Dried Plasma" | Murphy and Workman | J. of A.M.A., #154 | August 1953 |
| "Hemolysis in Blood Collected for Plasma processing" | Murphy, Sprout and Cetz | J.ofA.M.A.,#6 | Junel955 |
| "The Mechanical Factors Responsible for Rapid Infusion of Blood" | Walter, Murphy and Bellamy | S.G. &0.,#1 | July 1955 |
| "The Influence of Extracellular Factors Involved in the Collection of Blood in ACD on Maintenance of Red Cell Viability During Refrigerated Storage" | Gibson, Murphy, Scheitlin and Rees | Am. J. of CI. Path, #8 | August 1956 |
| "Direct Stimulation Myography and Ergometry of Human Calf Muscles with Supplementary Observations on Calf Elasticity," | Edwards and Murphy | Surgery, Gynecology & Obstetrics | December 1956 |
| "Unitized Disposable Urethral Catheter and Specimen Container" | Murphy, Flanery and Smith | J. of A.M.A., #15 | December 1956 |
| "A Blood Volume Expander Rediscovered" | Murphy | Bulletin of American Association of Blood Banks #2 | February 1957 |
| "Transfusion Consultation, Its Importance in Blood Banking" | Murphy | Bulletin of American Association of Blood Banks Vol. 10, No. 11 | November 1957 |
| "Atrial, Ventricular and Conal Myograms of the Embryonic Chick Heart" | Paff, Boucek and Murphy | The Anatomical Record | January 1959 |
| "Electrocardiographic and Myographic Responses to Injury in the Isolated Chick Embryo Heart" | Boucek, Murphy and Paff | University of Miami | March 1959 |
| "An Evaluation of Intermittent Peritoneal Lavage" | Doolan and Murphy | American Journal of Medicine | June 1959 |
| "Thermo-Plastics in Patient Care Devices" | Murphy | Hospital Topics | July 1959 |
| "Electrical and Mechanical Properties of the Chick Embryo Heart" | Boucek, Murphy and Paff | Circulation Research, Vol. VII | September 1959 |
| "Recording of the Mechanical and Electrical Functions of the Chick Embryo Heart" | Murphy, Boucek and Paff | Medical Electronics | June 1959 |
| "Electromagnetophoresis of Erythrocytes" | Dandliker, Murphy and Keller | Federation Proceedings, Vol. 19,m No. 1, Pt. 1 | March 1960 |
| "Segmental Perfusion of Coronary Arteries with Fibrinolysin in Man Following Myocardial Infarction" | Boucek and Murphy | Am. J. Cardiology | August 1960 |
| "A Sterile, Disposable Catheterization Tray" | Murphy | Hospital Topics | February 1961 |
| "Intercalative Angiography" | Boucek, Murphy and Hernandez | Radiology Vol. 76, No. 4 | April 1961 |
| "The Cardiac Programmer to Trigger an Arterial Pump" | Murphy | Transcript American Society of Artificial Internal Organs, Vol. VII | 1961 |
| "Magnetoelectrophoresis" | Murphy, Dandliker and Keller | Transfusion, Vol. 1, No. 6 | November–December 1961 |
| "Preparing Plastic Implant Devices" | Murphy | Hospital Topics | October 1971 |
| "Carl Walter: A Pioneer in Shaping the Medical Device Industry" | Murphy | The American Journal of Surgery | November 1984 |
Awards
Often recognized for his many achievements, he has received countless awards including the prestigious Lemelson-MIT Lifetime Achievement Award, the Distinguished Service Award of the North American Society of Pacing and Electrophysiology (1985), American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering Founding Fellow (1993) and the FIRST Founder’s Award (2000).
| Award | Year Awarded |
|---|---|
| American Roentgen Ray Society Award of Merit | 1948 |
| Massachusetts Institute of Technology Corporate Leadership Award | 1980 |
| International Society for Artificial Organs Distinguished Fellow Award | 1981 |
| National Institute of Health 7th Frank Hastings Award | 1983 |
| North American Society of Pacing & Electrophysiology Distinguished Service Award | 1985 |
| University of Illinois Medical Alumni Association Alumnus of the Year | 1987 |
| University of Illinois Alumni Association University of Illinois Alumni Achievement Award | 1994 |
| University of Miami, College of Engineering The Dean’s Award for Excellence in Innovation | 1998 |
| FIRST (US Foundation for the Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Founders Award | 2000 |
| Beacon Council, Miami, Florida First Jay Malina Award | 2003 |
| Lemelson – MIT Lifetime Achievement Award | 2003 |
| National Inventors Hall of Fame Inductee | 2008 |
Medical Licenses
Murphy is licensed to practice medicine in three states: California (license #C018494), Florida (license #0007401), and Massachusetts (license #23378)
References
- "Biography". nobelprize.org. Retrieved 30 December 2010.
- "Lemelson-MIT". Archived from the original on 11 October 2003. Retrieved 7 November 2013.
- "Career". Archived from the original on 11 October 2003. Retrieved 7 November 2013.
- US Patent and TradeMark Office Patent Search