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Pioneering cardiologist William Ganz, MD, passes at age 90
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William Ganz, MD, co-inventor of the Swan-Ganz catheter and a co-innovator of a widely used catheter technology, died of natural causes on Nov. 10.
Ganz, born in Kosice in 1919, attended the Charles University School of Medicine in Prague before being incarcerated in a concentration camp in World War II. He survived the ordeal, eventually fled communism and immigrated to the United States. He joined the cardiology division of the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in 1966. In 1970, Ganz and then-chief of cardiology H.J.C. Swan, MD, collaborated to create a balloon-tipped catheter to assess heart function in critically ill patients. After developing a method for measurement of blood flow in humans, the technique and devices were combined into the Swan-Ganz catheter, which is used by physicians around the world and remains a gold standard in cardiac medicine. Ganz was also a co-collaborator in the first studies in treating MI by dissolving blood clots. Clot-dissolving therapy is now used worldwide as a primary treatment for patients with MI.
“Dr. Ganz was a giant in medicine and in life,” P.K. Shah, MD, co-collaborator of the studies with Ganz and the current director of the cardiology division at Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute, said in a press release. “He changed the lives of millions through his significant contributions to medicine, but he never lost sight of the importance of family and friends. He left us a rich and valuable legacy.”
Ganz, whose wife Magda passed in 2005, was survived by his two sons, Peter Ganz, MD, a member of the Cardiology Today editorial board, and Tomas Ganz, MD, PhD, and their families.