Dr Milton Packer is a Distinguished Scholar in Cardiovascular Science at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, TX, US.
In the past, he was the Distinguished Chair in Cardiology at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and the Dickinson W Richards Professor of Medicine at Columbia University. He was a founding member and former President of Heart Failure Society of America. His research on the treatment of heart failure led to him being awarded the Lewis Katz lifetime achievement award in cardiovascular research.
Dr Packer earned his undergraduate degree at Pennsylvania State University in 1971 and his medical degree from Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia in 1973. He did his residency at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City where Edmund Sonnenblick was working, and a fellowship in cardiology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York.
In 1992, Dr Packer published a paper on a neurohormonal hypothesis to explain heart failure that synthesised ideas that were percolating at the time; the paper made him known as the father of that idea.
Dr Packer was principal investigator on the REFLECT trial for flosequinan which ran from 1987-1989 and the following PROFILE trial from 1991-1994. He was PI on a study of amlodipine that ran from 1987-1989 and the following PRAISE trial from 1992-1995 and PRAISE 2 from 1996-1999; the PROMISE trial for milrinone 1988-1990; the ATLAS trial for lisinopril from 1993-1997; the PRECISE trial for carvedilol from 1993-1995 and the following COPERNICUS trial from 1997-2002; the ENABLE trial (1999-2001) and REACH-1 trial (1997-2003) for bosentan; the OVERTURE trial (1999-2002) for omapatrilat; REVIVE I and II (2001-2006) for levosimendan; and the TRUE-AHF trial of ularitide that started in 2013. He also chaired the steering committee for the RADIANCE trial from 1989-1992 which studied the use of digoxin in people who were also treated with ACE inhibitors and chaired the steering committee for the RENEWAL trial (1999-2002) for etanercept. He was also the co-PI of the PARADIGM-HF trial that led to the approval of valsartan/sacubitril.
Dr Packer is the author of more than 400 medical research publications and is one of the most highly cited researchers in clinical cardiology.
