Medical professor, innovator at UM
When Michael Gordon first started taking themannequin to medical conferences, they didn’t take him seriously.
The University of Miami professor had developed the world’s first cardiopulmonary patient simulator —a life-size mannequin that could simulate 20 different human body indicators, like blood pressure and pulse. But when he took it to conferences to show it for the first time in 1968, he and his invention were not well-received.
“The scientific community, the academic community thought he was crazy,” said S. Barry Issenberg, Gordon’s mentee and a senior associate dean for research in medical education at the University of Miami. Medical students at that time were learning cardiology exclusively on patients, and several doctors at such conferences thought Gordon’s devicewas unnecessary.
Gordon, however, “saw where medicine was going, that patients were soon not going to be spending weeks in the hospital where studentswould have ample opportunity to learn,” Issenberg said. He continued to advocate on behalf of the device, which he named “Harvey” for a former professor and mentor, and it went on to be used widely.
After several decades as a leader and educator at the University of Miami, Gordonpassed away in his sleep Friday in Miami, his wife, Lynda, confirmed. He was 80.
Michael Gordon was bornMarch 29, 1937, in Chicago. In Illinois, he pursued the sciences, graduating from the University of Illinois with his bachelor’s degree and then his medical degree in 1959.
Michael moved to Florida the following year to pursue a one-year internship at Jackson Memorial Hospital. He left to pursue a fellowship at the Mayo Clinic, a simultaneous Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota and subsequently a position at Georgetown.
In 1966, he came back to teach at the Miller School of Medicine at the University of Miami, where he would spend the rest of his career. He embraced the school’s culture of creativity and entrepreneurship, Issenberg said, and developed the Harvey mannequin two years later.
Even when his peers doubted the value of his invention, his vision “gave him the energy, the drive, to prove them wrong.”
“Harvey” was not Gordon’s only invention. In the 1980s, he developed a computerlearning system calledUMedic to teach skills in multiple medical disciplines, including cardiology. He also designed training for Miami-Dade first responders to speed up their response to medical emergencies.
Gordon made a lasting financial and institutional impact to UM as well: He founded and directed the Michael S. Gordon Center forResearch inMedical Education, where he pursued newways to teach medicine and train first responders.
Gordon is survived by his wife, Lynda; sons, David Lee and Kevin; daughter, Cathy; and four granddaughters.