Blair Grubb

Blair P. Grubb is an American physician, researcher and scientist, currently a Distinguished University Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics at the University of Toledo.^[1][2] He is well known for his contributions to the study of syncope and disorders of the autonomic nervous system (in particular Postural Tachycardia Syndrome) (3).

History and Career

Dr. Grubb was born in Baltimore, Maryland on January 21, 1954 and grew up in the then rural Carroll County of Maryland. He graduated from South Carroll High School, and earned a BA in Biologic Sciences from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) in 1976. He earned a Medical degree from the Universidad Central del Este in the Dominican Republic in 1980. He then completed a medical residency at the Greater Baltimore Medical Center, where he also served as chief medical resident. He thereafter completed fellowships in both cardiology and clinical cardiac electrophysiology at the Pennsylvania State University's Milton S. Hershey Medical Center in Hershey, Pennsylvania(4). Grubb then joined the faculty of the Medical College of Ohio (later renamed the University of Toledo Medical Center) as an Assistant Professor of Medicine in 1988 where he initiated the institution's cardiac electrophysiology program. He became an Associate Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics in 1993, and was elevated to a full Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics in 1999.

Dr. Grubb is widely known for his research into the pathophysiology, diagnosis and management of syncope. He was among the first researchers in the United States to employ head upright tilt table testing for the diagnosis of vasovagal (neurocardiogenic) syncope. He is also widely considered one of the world's leading experts on Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS). He has authored over 240 peer reviewed scientific papers and 34 book chapters. He is co-editor of the textbook Syncope: Mechanisms and Management and the author of the book The Fainting Phenomenon. He is an Associate Editor of the journal Pacing and Clinical Electrophysiology.

Dr. Grubb has also published numerous essays on his experiences as a physician and patient, a collection of which were published as a book entitled The Calling(5). He has also published a number of poems. He has received numerous awards throughout his career and received UMBC's Distinguished Alumnus Award in 1994. He was named as a Distinguished University Professor by the University of Toledo in 2009. He was given the Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award in 2006. He received the University's Dean's Award for Career Achievement in 2016 as well as the University's Outstanding Research and Scholarship Award in 2017. Dr. Grubb received Dysautonomia International's "Physician of the Year" Award in 2015(6,7,8). That same year the British Arrhythmia Alliance named him "Medical Professional of the Decade"(9). He was married to the late Dr. Barbara Straus for 38 years(10).

References

3. http://uthealth.utoledo.edu/clinics/hvc/Syncope_Center.html 4.http://uthealth.utoledo.edu/findaphysician/Details/Blair-P-Grubb_75 5. http://www.eplabdigest.com/articles/A-Life%E2%80%99s-Work-Electrophysiology-An-Interview-with-Blair-P-Grubb-MD 6. http://www.dysautonomiainternational.org/pdf/Grubb_POTSQuest.pdf 7. http://wordpress.utoledo.edu/newsreleases/2015/07/14/grubb-named-physician-of-the-year-by-dysautonomia-international/ 8. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbt33-vP6EA 9.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93-hYQiH5e4 10. http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/toledoblade/obituary.aspx?pid=173940796