Congratulations to Albert L. Waldo, MD, FACC, for receiving one of the ACC’s Distinguished Scientist Awards, which were presented during the Convocation ceremony at ACC.09 in Orlando, recognize the professional excellence and substantial contributions of the many awardees. The awards shine the spotlight on their strong personal commitment to cardiovascular medicine, the ACC and most important, to the patients.

Distinguished Scientist Award (Translational Domain)
Albert L. Waldo, M.D., F.A.C.C.

Albert L. Waldo’s distinguished career as both a clinical and basic scientist began in 1966 at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University. Today, he is the Walter H. Pritchard professor of cardiology, professor of medicine and professor of biomedical engineering at Case Western Reserve University.

Waldo’s research interests are primarily in the field of cardiac electrophysiology. He was among the first to systematically use the open heart operating room as a cardiac electrophysiology laboratory to map the electrical activation of the human heart directly and to study its electrophysiological properties. His studies included mapping to delineate the specialized AV conduction system — especially complex congenital heart disease — studies of ectopic atrial activation and its relationship to P wave polarity, morphology and the P-R interval, mapping studies of ventricular arrhythmias including for the surgical treatment of ventricular tachycardia and much more.

He has made other major contributions, such as the use of temporary epicardial wire electrodes in the diagnosis and treatment of arrhythmias following open heart surgery, and has performed seminal work in the identification and characterization of the atrial flutter reentrant circuit. Furthermore, he developed the canine sterile pericarditis model of atrial flutter and atrial fibrillation interventions. Waldo also described entrainment of cardiac arrhythmias, which has become a central part of clinical electrophysiologic studies.

His involvement in many important clinical trials concerning cardiac arrhythmias has been central. He has been and continues to be a leader in his field as a translational basic scientist.