Lowell T. Harmison papers

Harmison spent over 40 years at the forefront of medical research and public health, specializing in HIV/AIDS, heart disease, cancer and healthcare. During his renowned career, he has served as researcher, inventor, author, biotechnologist, U.S. government senior health advisor, executive-level advisor to health related foundations and corporate executive in private and public companies. His pioneering work in HIV/AIDS led to his developing and testing the first HIV/AIDS blood test for the U.S. Public Health Service. As a result of his landmark work, the FDA approved the first blood test in March 1985 for use by the American Red Cross to screen America's blood supply. As the Science Advisor to the U.S. Public Health Service and as innovator in the private biotechnology sector for more than 25 years, his work encompassed a decade of research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and a decade of service as the U.S. Public Health Service Science Advisor and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Health, Department of Health and Human Services. He served as a member of the U.S. Department Health and Human Services Vaccine Compensation Commission to help work out plans and strategies to address adverse events caused by vaccines. In 1969 While Dr. Denton Coley was making headlines by implanting a plastic total heart pump in his patient as a two-day bridge to transplantation, with all controls and power outside the body, Dr. Harmison made history by developing and testing the first completely implantable artificial heart in the world. He holds the first U.S. and foreign patent for this device.