Arthur C. DeGraff, MD
Arthur C. DeGraff, MD
Arthur C. DeGraff was born in Patterson New Jersey. He attended New York University School of Medicine in an accelerated program during the First World War receiving his BA in 1920 and his MD degree in 1921.
Following internship and residency at Bellevue Hospital he studied physiology as the Crile Research Fellow at Western Reserve University Hospital under Carl Wiggers. He returned to NYU as an Instructor in Physiology in 1925 continuing his research here and at
the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, Massachusetts. Dr. DeGraff was promoted to Assistant Professor of Therapeutics in 1927 and then he was named Samuel A. Brown Professor of Therapeutics in 1932, a position he held until he became Professor Emeritus in 1980.
Dr. DeGraff’s career combined studies in clinical pharmacology with a Park Avenue cardiology practice. His research was intimately connected to the management of heart failure using cardiac glycosides and diuretics. He studied the pharmacokinetics of digitalis elimination in ambulatory patients, participated in the discovery of thiomerin, the first mercurial diuretic, and conducted what would now be called its preclinical trials. In subsequent decades, he investigated the rapidly acting glycoside gitalen and published authoritative articles on the clinical use of cardiac glycosides.
In 1934 Dr. DeGraff became the founding chair of the Bellevue Committee on Drugs and Formulary virtually inventing the role of the committee and defining the scope of its responsibility. In 1962 he published the definitive manual of procedures for such a committee in JAMA.
From its founding in 1947, until 1983, Dr. DeGraff served as the President of the Committee for the Promotion of Medical Research, an organization founded to utilize the profits from the discovery of thiomerin for the support of worthy research. He also served as President of the American Therapeutic Society (now The American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics) in 1957 and as President of the United States Pharmacopeial Convention from 1960 to 1970.
Dr. DeGraff passed away May 25, 1983, and is survived by 3 sons, Arthur C. DeGraff, Jr. M.D., Elliott D. DeGraff, and Eric W. DeGraff.
