Biography

Nicholas P.D. Smyth, MD conducted groundbreaking studies in pacemaker design and function have contributed to the longevity and quality of life of countless numbers of patients. Dr. Smyth was a founding member of the Heart Rhythm Society and was awarded the Society's "Pioneer In Cardiac Pacing And Electrophysiology" Award in 1992.

As a leading clinical researcher in his field, Dr. Smyth invented and patented pacemakers and pacemaker components, some still actively used today. Dr. Smyth was co-inventer of the world's smallest nuclear pacemaker. One of his most significant inventions is the atrial J-lead wire, the lead wire to maintain a stable position in the heart's atrium.

Another of his impactful accomplishments was devising (with colleagues Seymour Furman, MD, FHRS and Victor Parsonnet, MD, FHRS, CCDS) the 3-position pacemaker code (VVI), which had a major impact on pacemaker and ICD identification lexicon. In 1974 the Inter-Society Commission for Heart Disease Resources addressed an increasingly apparent need for a concise way of communicating three pacemaker fundamentals: the chamber or chambers paced, the chamber or chambers in which native depolarizations were sensed, and how sensing affected pacing patterns. They introduced the three-position ICHD Code, based on a concept suggested four years earlier by Dr. Smyth.

Dr. Smyth was born in Dublin and was educated in Ireland and England before coming to the United States. He received his bachelor's degree from University College Dublin in 1949 and his medical degree from the University of Michigan in 1954. He became a U.S. citizen during his military service, serving from 1955 to 1957 in the surgery department of the Army hospital at Fort Chaffee, AK.

After his discharge, he moved to Washington, DC and completed his residency in thoracic surgery at the GWU medical school. He remained a university faculty member for almost 40 years and was a teacher and surgeon at other area hospitals and health centers, including Washington Hospital Center and the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Smyth died November 29, 2008 of congestive heart failure at Avow Hospice in Naples, FL. Read Dr. Smyth's obituary in The Washington Post.

Compiled from obituaries publised in The Washington Post and the Naples Daily News.