CHICAGO : The 2017 Jacobson Innovation Award of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) was presented to Timothy A.M. Chuter, BM BS, DM, FACS, at a dinner held in his honor in Chicago, Ill. Dr. Chuter is a professor of surgery at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), where he practices vascular surgery with a focus on the endovascular reconstruction of aneurysms involving the aortic arch and thoracoabdominal aorta.
The prestigious Jacobson Innovation Award honors living surgeons who have been innovators of a new development or technique in any field of surgery and is made possible through a gift from Julius H. Jacobson II, MD, FACS, and his wife Joan. Dr. Jacobson is a general vascular surgeon known for his pioneering work in the development of microsurgery.
Dr. Chuter, a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons (FACS), was honored with this international surgical award in recognition of his innovative role in the development of endovascular aneurysm repair. He was the first to design, make, and implant bifurcated stent grafts to treat abdominal aortic aneurysms. This approach, like most of Dr. Chuter's inventions, embodies a simple principle: If the aneurysm has branches-as it does at the bifurcation of the common iliac artery, the bifurcation of the aorta, the arch of the aorta, and the thoracoabdominal aorta-the endovascular prosthesis should also have branches. Because the most common site for aortic aneurysm involves the distal abdominal aorta, bifurcated endovascular repair has become the most accepted method of aneurysm repair worldwide.
It's important to note that the years between 1993 and 2000 saw a rapid expansion in the scope of endovascular aneurysm repair. This was a time of endovascular firsts: the first endovascular repair of a ruptured aortic aneurysm (1994), the first endovascular repair of an aortobronchial fistula (1995), the first bifurcated stent grafts (1993), the first inflammatory aneurysms (1995), the first fenestrated stent grafts for aneurysms of the pararenal aorta (1998), and the first branched stent grafts for the thoracoabdominal aorta (2000). Although Dr. Chuter had a hand in many of these developments, none was the work of a single inventor. Dr. Chuter has said that he is proud to have contributed to this process, not only by inventing new forms of endovascular aneurysm repair but also by mentoring surgical residents, Fellows, and faculty.
Dr. Chuter has been hailed as a surgical inventor, and a businessman, developing not just minimally invasive surgical techniques but also inventing and patenting the very stent grafts facilitating his work. Dr. Chuter's devices and surgical techniques allow aneurysm repair in patients who otherwise may have no other chance of effective treatment. He holds more than 40 patents, including 23 related to endovascular aortic stent-graft devices, stents, attachment systems, delivery systems, and component junctions.
Dr. Chuter is the published author or coauthor of at least 145 peer-reviewed articles and 23 books/book chapters in the field. Throughout his career, his role in the development of endovascular aneurysm repair has been recognized by other organizations, including the Royal College of Surgeons (Kinmonth Medal, 1995), the Society for Vascular Surgery (Medal for Innovation in Vascular Surgery, 2008) and the Society for Endovascular Therapy (2009).
Dr. Chuter holds four degrees, including a postdoctoral research degree from the University of Nottingham (doctor of medicine, DM) for a thesis describing his early work on stent grafts.
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Note to Editors: A photo of Dr. Chuter is available on request from the ACS Office of Public Information as of Monday, June 12. Email: pressinquiry@facs.org.
About Timothy A. M. Chuter, BM BS, DM, FACS
Dr. Chuter studied medicine at the University of Nottingham, England. He then moved to New York and worked as an assistant professor of anatomy at Columbia University. His first-ever publication was the head, neck, and upper extremity chapters of an anatomy textbook. He was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time when a computer glitch left the Columbia-Presbyterian general surgery program one intern short, thus starting his journey.
In 1990, upon completing general surgery residency, Dr. Chuter moved to Rochester, New York for fellowship training in critical care and vascular surgery. His planned career as a general/vascular surgeon in a rural New England town took a different direction when he started to explore a few original ideas concerning the potential role of endovascular intervention as an alternative to maximally invasive surgery. These experiments were initially funded by Dr. Chuter's nighttime employment in local emergency rooms. Promising results attracted financial support and engineering help from Cook, Inc., a manufacturer of catheters, wires, and stents. The excitement generated by these early successes was enough to precipitate Dr. Chuter into a career focused on innovation, clinical application of new techniques, publication, and further innovation, all at a frenetic pace.
Dr. Chuter completed his vascular fellowship and went back to Columbia-Presbyterian as an assistant professor of surgery in 1993. The first clinical implantations of a bifurcated stent graft took place in late 1993 at selected centers in Australia and Europe. In 1995, Dr. Chuter left New York to work in Sweden as an associate professor of interventional radiology at Lund University. In 1996, Dr. Chuter was recruited to UCSF as the director of the newly formed endovascular program. The other founding faculty member was Linda M. Reilly, MD, FACS, renown for her numerous contributions in the field.
About the American College of Surgeons
The American College of Surgeons is a scientific and educational organization of surgeons that was founded in 1913 to raise the standards of surgical practice and improve the quality of care for all surgical patients. The College is dedicated to the ethical and competent practice of surgery. Its achievements have significantly influenced the course of scientific surgery in America and have established it as an important advocate for all surgical patients. The College has more than 80,000 members and is the largest organization of surgeons in the world. For more information, visit http://www.facs.org
View a list of all Jacobson Innovation Award Recipients.