Millennium Magazine_2ndEd

300 MILLENNIUM-SECOND EDITION A respected innovator in medical advancement, Dr. José Ramírez- Rivera is recognized worldwide as the inventor of the whole-lung lavage technique. This flooding of the lungs has proven effective in treating pulmonary alveolar proteinosis (PAP), a rare lung disorder causing abnormal accumulation of surfactant- derived lipoprotein compounds within the alveoli of the lung. Specializing in the diagnosis and treatment of lung conditions, Dr. Ramírez- Rivera has published over 110 scientific works and was named Man of the Year by the Puerto Rico Medical Society Western Section many times. He received the Abelardo Díaz Alfaro Prize for rewriting in contemporary Spanish Cayetano Coll y Toste’s “Puerto Rican Tales: Legends of Spanish Colonial Times” and translating them into English. He received the 2005 American College of Physicians Laureate Award and was president of the Puerto Rican Bioethics Society from 2000 to 2010. He has been featured in the book “2,000 Outstanding Intellectuals of the 21st Century.” A Puerto Rican native, Dr. Ramírez-Rivera moved to the United States at 15 years old to improve his English and attend Johns Hopkins University. He chose to study literature and philosophy, taking the Cours de Civilization Française at the University of Paris, where he was fortunate to study alongside ambitious individuals from all over the world. Upon returning to the U.S., Dr. Ramírez-Rivera completed an MD at the Yale School of Medicine in 1953. He then became a specialist in internal medicine at the University of Maryland Hospital. It was Dr. Ramírez-Rivera’s drive to find an effective treatment for a deadly disease that led him to invent the whole-lung lavage technique, first attempted in 1963. He then became chief of the pulmonary disease section at the Durham VA Medical Center and a professor at the Duke School of Medicine. Dr. Ramírez-Rivera created a program for internal medicine at Mayagüez Medical Center and directed it from 1971 to 1980. In 2017 he became a professor emeritus at the University of Puerto Rico after serving as a professor of medicine for over 40 years. Since 2010 he has been a professor of medicine at the Universidad Central del Caribe. JOSÉ RAMÍREZ- RIVERA, MD PHYSICIAN Guaynabo, PR