Apgar, Virginia (1909-1974), was an American physician who developed a system for evaluating the physical condition of a baby immediately after birth. The system, known as the Apgar score, assigns a numerical score to five vital functions measured one and five minutes after birth. Doctors throughout the world use the Apgar score to determine the short-term health care needs of newborn babies.
Apgar was born on June 7, 1909, in Westfield, New Jersey. She studied zoology, chemistry, and physiology at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts, graduating in 1929. She studied medicine at Columbia University, receiving her M.D. in 1933. Apgar specialized in anesthesiology, a branch of medicine that deals with the administration of drugs for the relief of pain, especially during surgery. In 1938, she was appointed the first director of anesthesiology at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City. In 1949, she became the first female professor at Columbia’s College of Physicians and Surgeons. That same year, she began to study the use of anesthesia during childbirth. This research led to the development of the Apgar score, introduced in 1952.
In 1959, Apgar joined the National Foundation-March of Dimes (now the March of Dimes Foundation), where she helped raise public support and funds for research on birth defects. She coauthored Is My Baby All Right? (1972), which dealt with birth defects. She died on Aug. 7, 1974.
See also Apgar score .
