27th World Congress on Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology, 16–19 September 2017, Vienna, Austria

 

 

Presentation of the

Ian Donald Gold Medal

to Greggory R. DeVore, M.D.

 

Tribute from Dr. Roberto Romero, Director of the Perinatal Research Branch of the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md.

 

The Ian Donald Gold Medal Award is presented annually to a physician‐scientist who has made outstanding contributions to the field of ultrasound in obstetrics and gynecology, and has provided insight by introducing a new technique or original research that has changed the practice of medicine or the way in which we think of physiology and pathology in our field. This year, the Ian Donald Gold Medal Committee (formed by previous Ian Donald Gold Medal recipients) has selected Dr Greggory R. DeVore for this most prestigious award of the International Society of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology (ISUOG). Greg has made pioneering contributions to the field of fetal echocardiography by studying cardiac anatomy, biometry and cardiac function, and the use of spectral and color Doppler in clinical obstetrics.

 

While attending medical school at the University of Utah from 1971 to 1975, Greg was recognized with four awards for contributions to neuroscience, and, in particular, for studies of seizures. Greg initially wanted to become an internist. He moved from Salt Lake City, Utah, to New Haven, Connecticut, and did an internship in internal medicine at Yale University. There, he had a change of heart, and decided to pursue obstetrics and gynecology.

 

I had the privilege to be a resident with Greg throughout our tenure at Yale University. We worked together as Chief Residents at Yale‐New Haven Hospital/Yale University, and were corecipients of the Meehan‐Miller Award in 1979, presented to outstanding Chief Residents of the year. This was in recognition of research that we did with Dr Nicholas Kadar on the early diagnosis of ectopic pregnancy, following the death of a patient from an undiagnosed ruptured ectopic pregnancy that occurred during our residency. Nick, who was also a resident at the time, formulated the question as to at what concentration of human chorionic gonadotropin would a gestational sac be visible on ultrasound. The three of us worked together, publishing a paper entitled ‘The discriminatory hCG zone’, which has since received over 300 citations. This was a particularly rewarding experience for us, because the rate of ruptured ectopic pregnancy at Yale dropped from 90% to 10% within the next few years.

 

After completing his residency, Greg became a Fellow in Maternal‐Fetal Medicine under the leadership of a previous recipient of the Ian Donald Gold Medal Award, Dr John Hobbins, who is a pioneer of ultrasound in obstetrics and gynecology in the USA. Greg developed an interest in fetal echocardiography and began to work with another Ian Donald Gold Medal recipient, the late Charlie Kleinman. Greg received a grant from the Thrasher Research Fund; with this, he acquired the equipment with which he would go on to carry out groundbreaking work in fetal echocardiography.

 

As an Associate Professor, Greg then joined the faculty at the University of Southern California School of Medicine, where he worked for several years with Lawrence Platt, another recipient of the Ian Donald Gold Medal, who introduced into clinical practice the biophysical profile to assess fetal wellbeing.

 

After that time, Greg worked at the Perinatology Research Branch of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), then became a full‐time consultant to obstetricians working with patients suspected to have fetal anomalies and growth disorders.

 

The Ian Donald Gold Medal Award is presented to Greg in recognition of his contributions to fetal echocardiography, which include the following:

 

-Definition of normal anatomy of the fetal heart using real‐time‐directed M‐mode ultrasound.

-Diagnosis and realization of the significance of a pericardial effusion in the fetus using real‐time‐directed M‐mode ultrasound.

-Diagnosis of cardiac arrhythmias using real‐time‐directed M‐mode ultrasound.

-M‐mode assessment of ventricular size and contractility during the second and third trimesters of pregnancy in the normal fetus.

-Doppler color flow mapping for the diagnosis of congenital heart disease.

Spatiotemporal image correlation (STIC) as a new technique for -evaluation of the fetal heart (published in Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology and currently cited over 350 times).

-‘SPIN’ technique to evaluate the outflow tracts of the fetal heart using STIC technology.

-Diagnosis of fetal cardiac dysfunction in fetuses with preterm prelabor rupture of membranes.

 

Included in his long list of awards, Greg received the Joseph H. Holmes Clinical Pioneer Award from the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine. He is also an Honored Alumni of the College of Biology and Agriculture of Brigham Young University.

 

Greg continues to be an active investigator, and is currently using speckle tracking of the fetal heart to evaluate cardiac function. He has also published on the 24‐segment sphericity index to evaluate fetal cardiac diastolic shape in normal fetuses as well as in fetuses with intrauterine growth restriction. This work was performed in collaboration with Mark Sklansky, a pediatric cardiologist at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA), and John Hobbins, at the University of Colorado in Denver.

 

Greg is well known for his impeccable lectures and for his extraordinary skill at examination of the human fetus with ultrasound. His live demonstrations are legendary, and he has been a Visiting Professor on virtually every continent, where he has shown large audiences his exceptional proficiency and gift in obtaining information about fetal cardiac anatomy and function.

 

In addition, Greg has a talent for generating computer‐based learning tools, and his website (www.fetal.com) features an exceptional range of lectures which are freely available. The topics reflect Greg's command not only of ultrasound, but also of obstetrics, and include prevention of preterm birth by measuring cervical length, prevention of pre‐eclampsia and intrauterine growth restriction, 3D and 4D ultrasound, and cell‐free DNA for prenatal diagnosis, to name but a few.

 

Greg has authored over 130 peer‐reviewed papers, contributed to over 30 textbooks, personally performed over 200 000 fetal ultrasound examinations, and is now a Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the prestigious David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

 

Tribute from Dr. Lawrence Platt, Professor, Department of Obstetrics, David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA.

 

Greg and his wife Dorothy have seven children and 22 grandchildren. The children and their spouses visited Vienna to celebrate with Greg and Dorothy this important recognition by ISUOG. Family is important to Greg, and he plays an important role in the lives of his mother, children and grandchildren. His relentless commitment to the pursuit of excellence remains unshakeable, despite his accomplishments and the contributions he has made over the last 40 years to obstetrics and gynecology.

 

I have been privileged to work and be associated with Dr Greggory DeVore for over 35 years. I see no one quite as deserving as he for this honor. Greg was the first obstetrician to publish on, and then dedicate much of his career to, the study of fetal echocardiography. Over the last 37 years he has helped to develop technology to discover many new and critically important ways to understand fetal cardiac function, as well as methods to improve prenatal diagnosis and assessment of fetal wellbeing.

 

Greg was the first to recognize, describe and publish significant findings that have transformed fetal ultrasound at least 40 times. In the last year alone he has published on the area and circumference of the heart, the computerized functional analysis of the heart, the global size of the heart and the sphericity index of the fetal heart. Among his firsts are discovery of the association of an increased nuchal translucency and congenital heart defects; the three‐vessel view; correlation of genetic markers including heart defects and Down syndrome; description of the association of tricuspid regurgitation and aneuploidy; use of STIC technology; and use of tomographic ultrasound imaging of the fetal heart.

 

It should be noted that if one carefully reviews the impact of his research and consults ResearchGate, one will find that he has authored over 130 articles in significant peer‐reviewed journals. Overall, his work has been cited close to 4000 times, his article on STIC in this Journal being his most highly cited.

 

Greg has been relentless in his pursuit of knowledge and teaching of others. To me, he represents why the Ian Donald Gold medal is awarded. Besides 37 years of continual research and innovation in fetal echocardiography, he has also contributed significantly to ISUOG committees and has been a faculty member at almost every annual congress of ISUOG since its inception. He is also an outstanding teacher of fetal echocardiography. He recently received the prestigious Pioneer Award from the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine (AIUM), and has been recognized by many other leading societies. In short, to me, Greg's past and ongoing research contributions not only equal but may even exceed those of previous recipients of the Gold Medal whose contributions have been in the area of fetal echocardiography. In addition to his dedication to science, medicine and his community, Greg is a model husband, father and grandfather. His devotion to his family has never been compromised by his commitment to his patients and research. I am confident you will agree that Greg is most deserving of the 2017 Ian Donald Gold Medal from ISUOG.

 

 

 

 

2014 American Institute of Ultrasound  Award Winners

 

Joseph H. Holmes Clinical Pioneer Award

 

The Pioneer Award, which honors an individual who has significantly contributed to the growth and development of medical ultrasound, was established in 1977. This special award was renamed in 1982 to honor Joseph H. Holmes, MD, who died that year. Dr Holmes, the first person named as an AIUM pioneer, was an important figure to both the field of diagnostic ultrasound and the AIUM. His early efforts in ultrasound research, which included tissue characterization and ultrasound’s diagnostic use in polycystic kidney disease and orthopedics, helped advance the field of ultrasound and encourage others to conduct new research. Serving the AIUM in many capacities, Dr Holmes was president from 1968 to 1970 and was editor of the AIUM’s official journal, which was then titled the Journal of Clinical Ultrasound, for nearly 10 years. Each year, the Joseph H. Holmes Pioneer Award honors 2 current or retired AIUM members, 1 in clinical science and the other in basic science.

 

 

Greggory R. DeVore, MD

 

 

If this award didn’t exist, the term “clinical pioneer” would still be the perfect descriptor of Greggory R. DeVore, MD. A graduate of Brigham Young University (zoology and chemistry), Dr DeVore earned his medical degree from the University of Utah, followed by an internship in internal medicine, a residency in obstetrics and gynecology, and a fellowship in maternal-fetal medicine at Yale University. It was at Yale—where he was the recipient of a research grant from the Thrasher Research Fund—that he began his pioneering research in the ultrasound evaluation of the fetal heart.

 

He began his professional career as an assistant professor at the University of Southern California School of Medicine, followed by a term as corporate director of maternal-fetal medicine at Intermountain Health Care in Salt Lake City. For the past 13 years, he has been a full- time consultant assisting community-based obstetricians with difficult fetal problems—an area in which he excels. He also worked as a consultant for the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Perinatology Research Branch, teaching young investigators fetal echocardiography. Currently the director of the Fetal Diagnostic Centers in Pasadena, Tarzana, and Lancaster, California, Dr DeVore is also a clinical professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the David Geffen University of California Los Angeles School of Medicine. Dr DeVore is an active reviewer for 8 prestigious medical journals and has served as the area editor (fetus and placenta) for the Journal of Clinical Ultrasound.

 

A past member of the AIUM Board of Governors, he has been winning awards since 1973 when he received the Roche Research Award in the Neurosciences from the National Student American Medical Association. To describe Dr DeVore as a prolific writer would be an understatement, as he has more than  125  peer-reviewed  publications to his credit, but it is his speaking ability and educational aptitude where his gifts are truly expressed. In addition to the dozens upon dozens of research papers he has presented at both national and international meetings, Dr DeVore has been invited to give hundreds of postgraduate medical education lectures on every continent except Antarctica and Africa and has served as a visiting professor at 6 separate institutions.

 

In his long and illustrious career, Dr DeVore has personally performed more than 200,000 fetal ultrasound examinations and assisted in the development of new ultrasound technologies for major multinational corporations. Indeed, it is his technological savvy that truly reflects his pioneering talents. He has embraced the digital world, creating iPhone and iPad apps for use by both patients and clinicians, along with videos and PowerPoint presentations that more clearly answer patients’ questions than any brochure ever could, as well as multimedia educational programs for physicians and sonographers.

 

Widely recognized for his exceptional fetal ultrasound skills by patients, clinicians, and the media, Dr DeVore has performed a 3/4-dimensional ultrasound examination for an MTV documentary and been asked by the prosecution to determine the age of the fetus in the famous Scott Peterson murder trial. Yet this father of 7 somehow finds time from his busy practice, educational endeavors, and app-creating to be involved in his other major interest—politics. Indeed, he served as a delegate to the 2012 Republican National Convention from the 28th Congressional District in California and was the national chairman for physician policy for the Mitt Romney presidential campaign. Deeply concerned about health care in his community, in his state, and across the nation, Dr DeVore is a candid blogger in the medical arena.

 

For all his pioneering efforts—in fetal echocardiography, in medical and educational apps and multimedia, in education, and in politics— he is deserving of this award.