Attilio Maseri

Attilio Maseri OMRI KSG (12 November 1935 – 3 September 2021) was an Italian academic and physician specialized in cardiology, considered a leading researcher in the field of ischemic heart disease. His patients included Queen Elizabeth II and Pope John Paul II.

Early life and education Maseri was born on 12 November 1935. Maseri, a native of Italy, graduated in 1960 with a doctorate in medicine from the University of Padua, followed by further qualifications in cardiology (1963) and nuclear medicine (1968) from the University of Pisa. During this time he worked as a research fellow at Columbia University (1965) and Johns Hopkins University (1966).

Career In 1967, he became assistant professor in the department of medicine and head of the coronary artery disease research group at the University of Pisa. In 1979 he was appointed professor of cardiovascular medicine at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School of the University of London and director of cardiology at Hammersmith Hospital. In 1991 he returned to Italy, where he became professor of cardiology at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Rome and director of cardiology at the Agostino Gemelli University Polyclinic. From 2002 to 2008, he was a professor of cardiology at the Vita-Salute San Raffaele University and director of the cardio-thoracic and vascular department at the San Raffaele Hospital, both in Milan.

He served on the editorial board of the New England Journal of Medicine. During his time in Pisa he pioneered the use of radioactive tracers, and later developed methods using positron emission tomography to study both blood flow and energy use in the heart. In 1992 he was awarded the King Faisal International Prize in Medicine for contributions to the understanding of coronary artery disease. In 1997 the American College of Cardiology presented him with its Distinguished Scientist Award. In 2002 he received the Gold Medal of the European Society of Cardiology. In 2004 he accepted the Grand Prix scientifique de la Fondation Lefoulon-Delalande for clinical investigations of vasomotor function in angina pectoris. He was appointed Commander of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic in 1989, and promoted to Knight Grand Cross of the same Order in 2005. John Paul II appointed him Knight Commander of the Order of St. Gregory the Great.