Julio C Palmaz is a doctor of vascular radiology at University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.
23 Facts About Julio Palmaz
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Julio Palmaz studied at the National University of La Plata in Argentina, earning his medical degree in 1971.
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Julio Palmaz then practiced vascular radiology at the San Martin University Hospital in La Plata before moving to the University of Texas Health and Science Center at San Antonio.
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Julio Palmaz is known for inventing the balloon-expandable stent, for which he received a patent filed in 1985.
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Julio Palmaz continues to innovate on his initial designs, developing new endovascular devices.
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Julio Palmaz was born in December 13,1945, in La Plata, Argentina; Palmaz's parents were of Italian descent, his father worked as a bus driver.
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Julio Palmaz joined the San Martin University Hospital in La Plata to practice vascular radiology in 1974.
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Julio Palmaz moved with his family to the United States in 1977 and spent three years training in radiology at the University of California at Davis' Martinez Veterans Administration Medical Center.
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Julio Palmaz has worked as Chief of Angiography and Special Procedures in the radiology department at the University of Texas Health and Science Center at San Antonio since 1983.
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Julio Palmaz currently holds the Ashbel Smith Professorship as a tenured Professor at UTHSCSA.
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Julio Palmaz got the idea for his stent after listening to a lecture by Gruentzig at a conference in New Orleans in 1978.
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Julio Palmaz had an idea then to put a scaffold of sorts inside the vessels, to hold them open and keep them from occluding.
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Julio Palmaz began by sticking pins into a pencil and weaving wire around them, but the structure did not maintain form as it was compressed.
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Julio Palmaz then soldered the wires at their junctions, achieving the desired plasticity; however this required two separate metals, which was undesirable for medical use.
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Julio Palmaz's solution was inspired by a metal lathe with a structure of staggered openings that a mason had left in his garage: cutting holes in metal tubing would create a collapsible structure that would remain rigid once expanded.
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Julio Palmaz succeeded in creating a model that he was able to test in animals, including pigs and rabbits, with promising results; he began shopping the device around to medical companies, but the response was lukewarm.
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In 1983, Dr Stewart Reuter, Chair of Radiology at UTHSCSA and a mentor to Julio Palmaz, encouraged him to accept a position at the center.
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Julio Palmaz did so, in part because there he would have access to resources he needed to further his stent development.
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Julio Palmaz eventually succeeded in creating a prototype of a stainless steel, insertable mesh stent that could be expanded once inside the body to hold a blood vessel or artery open and allow blood to flow more freely.
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Julio Palmaz secured funding from a somewhat unlikely partner: Phil Romano, an entrepreneur who founded restaurant chains such as Fuddruckers and The Macaroni Grill, offered to put up $250,000 in exchange for a stake in the product, which Palmaz began co-developing with Dr Richard Schatz, a cardiologist at Brooke Army Medical Center.
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The damages awarded for the Julio Palmaz patents were the largest ever in patent litigation history.
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Julio Palmaz created the largest wine cave in Napa Valley, Julio Palmaz Vineyards.
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Julio Palmaz is married to fellow Argentine Amalia Julio Palmaz and has two children, Florencia and Christian.