7 Virginia Apgar 7

Virginia Apgar

(b. June 7, 1909, Westfield, N.J., U.S.—d. Aug. 7, 1974, New York, N.Y.)

V

irginia Apgar, an American physician, anesthesiologist,
and medical researcher, developed the Apgar Score
System, a method of evaluating an infant shortly after birth
to assess its well-being and to determine if any immediate
medical intervention is required.
Apgar graduated from Mount Holyoke College in
1929 and from the Columbia University College of
Physicians and Surgeons in 1933. After an internship at
Presbyterian Hospital, New York City, she held residen-
cies in the relatively new specialty of anesthesiology at
the University of Wisconsin and then at Bellevue
Hospital, New York City, in 1935–37. In 1937 she became
the first female board-certified anesthesiologist. The first
professor of anesthesiology at the College of Physicians
and Surgeons (1949 –59), she was also the first female
physician to attain the rank of full professor there.
Additionally, from 1938 she was director of the depart-
ment of anesthesiology at Columbia-Presbyterian
Medical Center.
An interest in obstetric procedure, and particularly
in the treatment of the newborn, led her to develop a
simple system for quickly evaluating the condition and
viability of newly delivered infants. As finally presented
in 1952, the Apgar Score System relies on five simple
observations to be made by delivery room personnel
(nurses or interns) of the infant within one minute of
birth and—depending on the results of the first obser-
vation—periodically thereafter. The Apgar Score
System soon came into general use throughout the
United States and was adopted by several other
countries.