Eric J. Topol is the Founder and Director of the Scripps Translational Science Institute in La Jolla, California. He also serves as the Gary & Mary West Endowed Chair of Innovative Medicine, Scripps Research; Chief Academic Officer for Scripps Health; Professor of Genomics at The Scripps Research Institute, and a Senior Consultant at the Division of Cardiovascular Diseases at Scripps Clinic. He is the lead editor of Textbook of Interventional Cardiology, 8th Edition.
Dr. Topol received his MD from the University of Rochester School of Medicine in 1979, and completed internal medicine residency at University of California, San Francisco, and cardiology fellowship at Johns Hopkins University. He then was on faculty at the University of Michigan from 1985-1991; in 2011 the University of Michigan set up the Eric J. Topol Collegiate Professorship in Cardiovascular Medicine.
In Cleveland, Dr. Topol chaired the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine at Cleveland Clinic for 15 years and elevated its status to rank No. 1 by U.S. News and World Report for 11 consecutive years. Dr. Topol served on the faculty of Case Western as a professor in genetics, and was founder and provost of the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine. His work in the genomics of heart attack has led to discovery of key genes recognized by the American Heart Association twice as one of the top 10 research advances, and by TIME magazine as a “Top 10 Medical Breakthroughs in 2010.”
As a leader in clinical trials of novel therapeutics, Dr. Topol administered recombinant t-PA to the first patient in 1984, pioneered the clinical development of clopidogrel (Plavix), bivalirudin (Angiomax), and abciximab (ReoPro). He was the first physician to publish safety concerns on the cardiovascular risk of Vioxx. He has authored more than 1,000 original peer reviewed publications and has edited more than 30 books. His current research is in individualized medicine, using the genome and digital technologies to understand individuals at the biologic, physiologic granular level to determine appropriate therapies and prevention.
Dr. Topol has been a medical innovator in wireless medicine, including wireless electrocardiogram (ECG) telemetry, vital signs, and as a founder and vice chairman of the West Wireless Health Institute. He has been elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Association of Physicians selected him as one of the founding “Rock Stars of Science” by the Geoffrey Beene Foundation, and recognized by the Institute of Scientific Information (ISI) to be one of the top 10 cited biomedical researchers in medicine. In addition, Dr. Topol was selected as one of Modern Healthcare’s 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare.
