Dr. Joseph K. Perloff, the founding director of the Ahmanson/UCLA Adult Congenital Heart Disease Center, died Aug.18 at his home in Pacific Palisades, Calif., due to complications from coronary artery disease. He was 89.
As the founder of a new medical subspecialty, congenital heart disease in adults, Dr. Perloff witnessed over four decades of growth in this field. Congenital heart disease now impacts more than 1.2 million adults in the U.S. He established the Adult Congenital Heart Disease Center at UCLA in 1980 to provide expert patient care, physician education, and clinical and basic research. The center rapidly gained national and international recognition, culminating in a major endowment from the Ahmanson Foundation. The center was the first, and remains one of the largest such facilities in the United States. Dr. Perloff stepped down as director in 2001, but remained close to the center in his emeritus role, teaching, writing, researching and lecturing until very recently.
Dr. Perloff was born in New Orleans and received his medical degree from Louisiana State University in 1951. After an internship and residency in medicine and pathology at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York, he spent a formative year with Dr. Paul Hamilton Wood at the Institute of Cardiology in London as a Fulbright Fellow. Dr. Perloff returned to the United States where he worked at the NIH and Georgetown University, where he quickly rose to the rank of professor. He subsequently served as cChief of the Section of Cardiology at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Perloff moved to UCLA in 1977 as the Streisand/American Heart Association Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics.
He is the author of two classic textbooks, “The Clinical Recognition of Congenital Heart Disease” and “The Physical Examination of the Heart and Circulation,” and is co-author of "Congenital Heart Disease in Adults." He has published over 400 articles in leading journals and has been an internationally acclaimed lecturer in the field of congenital heart disease.
He is survived by his wife Marjorie, his daughters Carey and Nancy, and three grandchildren.
A memorial is being planned for Sunday, Sept. 28. Details will soon be available on the Ahmanson/UCLA Adult Congenital Heart Disease website.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Ahmanson/UCLA Adult Congenital Heart Disease Center in Joseph K. Perloff's memory. Donation checks should be made payable to the UC Regents (mailing address: UCLA Development, Box 951784, Suite 3132, Los Angeles, Calif. 90095-1784) or online.
