(1931 – )
Biography
J. Warren Harthorne is a born "Mainer" who has the conviction that the majority of conversations can be resolved with three words: "Yup!, Nope!, and Maybe!" Born in the state of Maine in the depression years, he experienced a childhood characterized by building rafts on local ponds, paddling a home-made kayak throughout Portland harbor, downhill skiing at a time when climbing the mountain was the only form of uphill transportation and tying fishing lures to cajole salmon and togue from the deeper reaches of Moosehead Lake.
He attended local schools and graduated cum laude from Bowdoin College with a double major in chemistry and biology. An interest in the history of medicine and Cushing's biography of William Osler led him across the border to Montreal, Canada where he received his medical degree from McGill University School of Medicine in 1957. An original intent to practice surgery in his home town led him to spend a year of internship at the Maine Medical Center in Portland but he returned to Montreal to continue with a medical residency for the following two years. Activation of an ROTC commission from college days brought him into the U.S. Army with a tour of duty in a M.A.S.H. Hospital in Korea followed by a second year at Valley Forge General Hospital in Pennsylvania and then conclusion of medical residency at the Montreal General Hospital. He was selected to be a cardiology trainee at the Massachusetts General Hospital in 1961 to 1965 where he worked under the tutelage of Dr. Paul Dudley White. He joined the junior staff of the Cardiac Unit there in 1965 and has remained at this hospital throughout the remainder of his career.
An early interest in diagnostic catheterization led to his directing the cardiac catheterization laboratory for several years teaching and performing all aspects of diagnostic catheter techniques before shifting his interest toward cardiac pacemaker therapy. During the early 1970's he joined with Dr. Farouk Pirzada to form the Boston Pacemaker Club which hosted quarterly lectures on pacemaker related technology and then in 1979 he joined with Drs. Seymour Furman, Victor Parsonnet, and Dryden Morse to initiate the formation of the North American Society of Pacing and Electrophysiology.
Dr. Harthorne is the author of numerous papers, monographs, and book chapters on cardiac catheterization, coronary angiography, and pacemaker therapy. His greatest source of pride and satisfaction continues to be the associations and friendships he has had with several dozen trainees in cardiac pacing over the past 30 years, many of whom now hold important positions within NASPE and the Heart Rhythm Society and various national medical societies. He lives with his wife, Christa, in Wayland, Massachusetts and remains active in teaching the techniques and theory of cardiac arrhythmia device therapy to Electrophysiology trainees as well as conducting a sizeable consulting practice in general Cardiology.
Interview
Following are excerpts from this interview.
Interviewer: Seymour Furman, MD
Date: January 26, 1997
Place: Wellesley, Massachusetts
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How Dr. Harthorne became involved in cardiology. (1:35 sec.: Real Audio)
First exposure to transvenous pacing. (6:49 sec.: Real Audio)
Retromammary pacemaker placement; the cosmetic approach. (3:07 sec.: Real Audio)
(note: bit of static at beginning)
Current NASPE involvement and his practice now. (1:17 sec.: Real Audio)
NASPE's Founders: (pictured above from left to right) Dryden P. Morse, MD; Seymour Furman, MD, FHRS, CCDS; J. Warren Harthorne, MD, FHRS, CCDS and Victor Parsonnet, MD, FHRS, CCDS.
