SAN DIEGO – Spencer King, MD, FSCAI, has been named the recipient of the 2018 SCAI Helping Hearts Lifetime Service Award. The annual award recognizes a SCAI member who has provided outstanding service to the Society over the course of their career. The award was presented during the annual celebration at the SCAI 2018 Scientific Sessions in San Diego, Calif.

A pioneer in interventional cardiology, Dr. King was co-developer of the multi-purpose technique of coronary arteriography and has directed invasive and interventional cardiology training for more than 150 cardiology fellows. Dr. King served as director of the cardiac catheterization laboratory at Emory University Hospital from its inception through 2000 and was director of interventional cardiology and the Andreas Greuntzig Cardiovascular Center at Emory University in Atlanta from 1985 until 2000.

“There are very few people in interventional cardiology that can match the legacy of Dr. Spencer King.  His early engagement with Andreas Greuntzig, ["the father of interventional cardiology"] brought Dr. Gruentzig to America in 1980,” says Kirk N. Garratt, MD, MSc, MSCAI, SCAI 2017-18 president. “Much of the seminal work proving the effectiveness of balloon angioplasty was done at, or coordinated through, the team of interventional pioneers that Drs. King and Greuntzig organized at Emory University. He continued at the vanguard as many devices followed the balloon catheter,” Garratt said. “He’s held many leadership roles and was the first interventional cardiologist to serve as president of the American College of Cardiology (ACC), and is one of only two who have served as president of both ACC and SCAI. He’s authored more than 500 papers, and he’s touched the lives of thousands of patients, fellows, and colleagues. Quite a legacy.”

Dr. King served as the first chair of the interventional cardiology boards of the American Board of Internal Medicine (1997-2007). He has served as principal investigator or member of the steering committees of 15 national and international clinical trials in cardiology, as well as conducting the first National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute trial of coronary angioplasty versus bypass surgery.