PHYSICIAN

Vivien Thomas

1910 - 1985

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Vivien Theodore Thomas (August 29, 1910 – November 26, 1985) was an American laboratory supervisor who, in the 1940s, played a major role in developing a procedure now called the Blalock–Thomas–Taussig shunt used to treat blue baby syndrome (now known as cyanotic heart disease) along with surgeon Alfred Blalock and cardiologist Helen B. Taussig. He was the assistant to Blalock in Blalock's experimental animal laboratory at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, and later at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. Thomas was unique in that he did not have any professional education or experience in a research laboratory; however, he served as supervisor of the surgical laboratories at Johns Hopkins for 35 years. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Vivien Thomas has received more than 2,037,728 page views. His biography is available in 18 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 16 in 2019). Vivien Thomas is the 508th most popular physician (down from 429th in 2019), the 5,396th most popular biography from United States (down from 4,451st in 2019) and the 55th most popular American Physician.

Memorability Metrics

  • 2.0M

    Page Views (PV)

  • 50.00

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 18

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 2.04

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 3.25

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Among PHYSICIANS

Among physicians, Vivien Thomas ranks 508 out of 726. Before him are Rebecca Guarna, Friedrich Robert Faehlmann, Léon Jean Marie Dufour, Frank H. Netter, Ugo Cerletti, and Johann Gottlieb Gleditsch. After him are Kurt Blome, Eugene Lazowski, Oskar Minkowski, Robert Knox, Philipp Jakob Cretzschmar, and Anthony Carlisle.

Most Popular Physicians in Wikipedia

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1910, Vivien Thomas ranks 212. Before him are Peter Pears, Gunnar Thoroddsen, Rodolpho Barteczko, Marc Lawrence, Fei Xiaotong, and Jutta Rüdiger. After him are Carlo Ceresoli, Ma Zhongying, Robert Cummings, Saint Alphonsa, Walter Thiel, and Carlos Marcello. Among people deceased in 1985, Vivien Thomas ranks 150. Before him are Israel Regardie, Jan de Quay, Aksel Airo, E. B. White, Haruo Remeliik, and Yusuf Lule. After him are Ludo Coeck, Tatiana Proskouriakoff, Bruno de Finetti, Julian Beck, Karl Zischek, and Emerson Spencer.

Others Born in 1910

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Others Deceased in 1985

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In United States

Among people born in United States, Vivien Thomas ranks 5,396 out of 20,380. Before him are Brad Harris (1933), Mona Simpson (1957), Frank James (1843), Henry Cowell (1897), Gregory Hoblit (1944), and Mary Elizabeth Winstead (1984). After him are Robert Chartoff (1933), Paula Kelly (1942), John Drew Barrymore (1932), Spotted Elk (1826), Jack Horner (1946), and Charles W. Misner (1932).

Others born in United States

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Among PHYSICIANS In United States

Among physicians born in United States, Vivien Thomas ranks 55. Before him are Crawford Long (1815), Charles Best (1899), Fernando J. Corbató (1926), George Huntington (1850), Benjamin Rush (1745), and Frank H. Netter (1906). After him are Alfred Blalock (1899), Kenneth H. Cooper (1931), Burrill Bernard Crohn (1884), Thomas Horsfield (1773), Jeffrey Ullman (1942), and Ancel Keys (1904).

American born Physicians

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