Biography

Esteemed pathophysiologist and cardiac electrophysiologist, Naum L. Gurvich, was born on April 15, 1905 in the village of Timkovichi, near the capital of Byelorussia Minsk. He received his MD from Saratov Medical School in 1928 and then worked as a family physician for 4 years in the village of Volovo near Moscow. In 1932, he was enrolled into graduate school at the Institute of Physiology in Moscow. His Ph.D. advisor, and director of the Institute of Physiology L.S. Schtern was a former trainee and associate of L.-P. Prevost in Geneva, who was one of the discoverers of defibrillation in 1899. Gurvich has become a devoted member of Schtern’s research laboratory, which has concentrated on electric stimulus induced arrhythmogenesis and defibrillation. In 1939, Naum Gurvich was awarded a Ph.D. for his work "On excitation of intramural system by sinusoidal current of low frequency". The same year he co-authored a paper with G.S.Yuniev, in which they proposed the use of capacitor discharge for defibrillation instead of an alternative current. In 1940, Gurvich proposed the use of biphasic waveforms for defibrillation. In 1948, Gurvich moved to the Laboratory of Experimental Physiology of Resuscitation, Academy of Medical Sciences of USSR, Moscow. The main focus of his entire research career was on the mechanisms of initiation and maintenance of fibrillation and defibrillation. In the early 1940s, he introduced the hypothesis of defibrillation as the stimulation of the myocardium by shock. This was in contrast to the dominating at the time theories of shock-induced reversible incapacitation of the myocardium. He also introduced the concept of spatial heterogeneity of ability to respond to high-frequency rhythms and the concept of "mother-reentry", as foundations of development and sustenance of fibrillation. He spent many years investigating optimization of electrical stimulation therapy. In the early 1950s Gurvich designed one of the first commercially available transthoracic defibrillators in the world. In 1970, his work on the development and clinical implementation of electroimpulse therapy was recognized by the prestigious in the USSR State Prize. Biphasic waveforms are now becoming commonly accepted in defibrillation therapy, replacing monophasic waveforms used up to now in some of the transthoracic defibrillators. A biphasic waveform, known as the Gurvich waveform, has been used in Russian-made transthoracic defibrillators since the early 1970s. Dr. Gurvich was not only a brilliant investigator and engineer, but also an excellent research advisor and colleague of many who remember him with deep gratitude and respect. Recently, his former advisor N.A. Negovsky and his advisee M.S. Bogushevich wrote about Naum L. Gurvich:

"He was a remarkable research advisor… a kind and generous man, who shared his vast knowledge with young scientists. His numerous pupils work in many cities of Russia".

- Igor Efimov, PhD.
3/21/02