Forssmann, Werner (vĕr`nər fôrs`män), 1904–79, German physician and physiologist, M.D. Univ. of Berlin (1929). In the late 1920s, he developed the technique of cardiac catheterization, whereby a long tube (catheter) is inserted into a vein in the arm and pushed through the vein until it reaches the heart. Forssmann first performed this technique on himself. He also injected radio-opaque contrast media into his heart and took x-rays revealing the chambers of the heart. His work was not recognized until after World War II, when André F. Cournand Cournand, André Frederic (k
..... Click the link for more information. and Dickinson W. Richards Richards, Dickinson Woodruff, Jr., 1895–1973, American physician and physiologist, b. Orange, N.J., grad. Yale, 1917, M.D. Columbia, 1923. He joined the staff of the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia in 1928 and became professor of medicine in 1945.
..... Click the link for more information. , working in the United States, demonstrated the importance of catheterization to the diagnosis of heart and lung diseases. Forssmann and the two Americans shared the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their work.

Forssmann, Werner

(born Aug. 20, 1904, Berlin, Ger.—died June 1, 1979, Schopfheim, W.Ger.) German surgeon. He shared with Andre Cournand and Dickinson W. Richards (1895–1973) a 1956 Nobel Prize for contributions to the development of cardiac catheterization. He used himself as the first human subject, watching the progress of the catheter in a mirror in front of a fluoroscope screen. Severely criticized for this, he abandoned cardiology for urology. His procedure, put into practice by Richards and Cournand, has become an invaluable diagnostic and research tool.