Dr. James V. Warren, born and raised in Columbus, completed his under-graduate studies at The Ohio State University. In the years following his graduation from Harvard Medical School, he became internationally recognized as a cardiovascular investigator. His innovative studies included the pathophysiologic definition of many major cardiovascular disorders (e.g. cardiac tamponade, ventricular failure, congenital heart disease) employing the new method of cardiac catheterization. His studies of congestive heart failure are classics. These achievements culminated in the Presidency of the American Heart Association in 1961, and the prestigious James B. Herrick Award from the Council of Clinical Cardiology for outstanding achievement in 1976.
Dr. Warren served on the medical school faculties of Duke University, Emory University, and the University of Texas at Galveston; but a few of his distinguished mentors and colleagues included Drs. Soma Weiss, Eugene Stead, Paul Beeson, Charles Janeway, Robert Grant, Andre Cournand, Louis Dexter, Robert Loeb, John Hickman, E. Harvey Estes, and Arnold Weissler. He returned to The Ohio State University in 1961 as Professor and Chairman of the Department of Medicine. He continued to be at the forefront of cardiovascular thought. He was responsible for developing one of the nation's first hospital coronary care units at The Ohio State University Hospital in 1964, and the first American prehospital coronary care system in 1969.
During his Chairmanship of Medicine (1961 - 1979), Dr. Warren held numerous national and international offices. As a result, he became a highly influential figure in academic medicine. He built a strong and balanced Department of Medicine and one of the outstanding teaching programs in the United States. Perhaps the greatest mark of his achievements is the fact that a large number of his trainees have become division directors, department chairmen and deans of this and other institutions.
Dr. Warren became Professor Emeritus in 1986, but continued to play an active role in academic medicine both here at Ohio State as well as nationally until the time of his passing.
It is for these achievements and contributions as well as the remarkable legacy which remains, that we honor him in presenting the Memorial James V. Warren Lectureship.