Eric Rose (surgeon)

Eric A. Rose is an American cardiothoracic surgeon, scientist, entrepreneur and professor and Chairman of the Department of Population Health Science & Policy, and Associate Director for Clinical Outcomes at Mount Sinai Heart. He is best known for performing the first successful paediatric heart transplant, in 1984 while at NewYork–Presbyterian Hospital (NYP).

Later, he led the REMATCH Trial, published 2001, which compared the permanent implantation of a Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD) with conventional medical treatment in people with severe heart failure who were not eligible for heart transplantation.

Rose has co-founded several biotechnology companies and has been involved in developing anti-virals to smallpox, new medical technologies and new approaches to Alzheimer's disease and bioterrorism.

He was president of the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation for 1993–94.

Early life and family Rose attended the Bronx High School of Science and was class of 1968. At school, he was part of a rockband called Metropolitan Blues Express, an experience he has described as "diverse" and useful as an exercise in "team-building".

He married anaesthesiologist, Ellise Delphin, and they have four children who all live in Manhattan. After graduation he did his residencies in surgery and thoracic surgery at what was then the Presbyterian Hospital.

He spent more than 25 years at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, now NewYork–Presbyterian Hospital / Columbia University Medical Center. During his career at NYP, he held numerous positions including director of the Clinical Perfusion Service and of the Surgical Cardiac Intensive Care Unit, chief of the Cardiothoracic Surgical Service, the Morris and Rose Milstein Professor of Surgery, and associate dean for translational research.

Heart transplantations Paediatric heart transplantation, 1984 Keith Reemtsma had started an adult transplantation programme in 1977 at NewYork–Presbyterian / Columbia and recruited Rose and others to initiate paediatric transplantations. The then-new immunosuppressant Cyclosporin was approved by the FDA in 1983 and contributed to the first successful heart transplant in a child in June 1984.

James Lovette, from Denver, was born with a single ventricle, a condition that was fatal in 1984. The longest survival in a child heart transplant procedure was eighteen days until Rose and his team performed four year old James’s heart transplant on 9 June 1984.

James survived twenty one years after the first transplant,

Frank Torre, 1996 On 25 October 1996, Rose led the heart transplant procedure on Yankees manager Joe Torre's brother, 64-year-old baseball player Frank Torre.

On the morning of the operation, Rose, with Mehmet Oz, MD who was his deputy in the NYP/Columbia Department of Cardiothoracic surgery at the time, took four hours to complete the procedure and by midday the surrounding publicity was immense.

REMATCH (Randomized Evaluation of Mechanical Assistance for the Treatment of Congestive Heart Failure) Trial Background During the 1990s, LVADs were used successfully as a bridge-to-transplantation device, that is, to fill the time before a suitable donor could be found, and medical treatment options were limited. Despite the uncertainties, the clinical potential of LVADs for transplant-ineligible heart failure patients encouraged Rose and others to expand the use of these devices beyond their short-term use. Its safety and life expectancy were unknown, and it was unclear as to whether they would provide better outcomes than conventional treatment with medication in people with severe heart failure. Cost-effectiveness was also a factor.

PREMATCH The first phase, April 1996 to April 1998, was called PREMATCH and it demonstrated enough data to move to the next larger scale trial. It revealed that the severely ill, older, not fit for heart transplant person could withstand the implant procedure, the implant used being the HeartMate LVAD. However, it was still uncertain as to whether those with an LVAD performed clinically better. Thoratec Corporation demonstrated sufficient safety, efficacy and reliability data to secure premarket approval. With further modifications to the trial methods, the REMATCH protocol was finalized for the second phase multicenter RCT.

Later career and other roles Rose co-founded several biotechnology companies including Nephros, which is concerned with heart and kidney related medical devices, and between 1997 and 2009, has served at various points, as its chairman, president, chief executive and director. Between 2007 and 2016, he was chief executive of the anti-viral developer SIGA Technologies, having been an executive director at SIGA since 2001 and a member of the National Biodefense Science Board since 2007. He was appointed executive vice president for life sciences at MacAndrews & Forbes in 2007, a position he held until 2016.

Awards During their 53rd annual meeting, in 2017, the Society of Thoracic Surgeons awarded Rose the Bakken Scientific Achievement Award. Granted by Medtronic, the award is named after its co-founder and pacemaker pioneer Earl Bakken, to someone who has solved major cardiothoracic surgery queries. He joined the Bronx High School of Science Hall of Fame in 2018.

Selected publications Rose has authored and co-authored more than 300 peer-reviewed articles on subjects including cardiovascular surgery, ventricular assist devices, and cardiac transplantation. He also wrote two books: Management of End-Stage Heart Disease and Second Opinion: The Columbia Presbyterian Guide to Surgery. His work has been cited in over 3,000 other articles.

Books Management of End-stage Heart Disease. Lippincott-Raven, 1998. (With Lynne Warner Stevenson) Second Opinion: The Columbia-Presbyterian Guide to Surgery. St. Martin's Press, 2015.

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