Marie-Claude Morice, MD, Receives 2014 Master Clinical Operator Award

The Cardiovascular Research Foundation has given the 2014 Geoffrey O. Hartzler Master Clinical Operator Award to Marie-Claude Morice, MD. She is being recognized both for her work inside the cath lab and for her devotion to clinical research activities that have advanced the field of interventional cardiology.

Morice, who earned her medical degree from the University of Medicine in Paris, is the first woman to be recognized with this award, given annually at TCT to an interventional operator who has distinguished himself or herself as an innovator in the field. She serves as the head of interventional cardiology at the Institut Cardiovasculaire Paris and the president and medical director of the European Cardiovascular Research Center.

“I feel extremely proud and very honored,” Morice said in an interview. “The recognition of my work by my peers is the most meaningful tribute I could receive.”

Morice told TCT Daily that she has dedicated her professional career to the wellbeing of her patients and their families. By following technological innovations, she has been able to implement state-of-the-art treatment strategies and achieve the best possible level of care. Morice also has devoted her time to transmitting this knowledge to her young colleagues in fellowship programs.

Breaking barriers

“It is a thrill for us to recognize Marie-Claude Morice with the Geoffrey O. Hartzler Master Clinical Operator Award,” said TCT Course Director Gregg W. Stone, MD, of Columbia University Medical Center in New York.

“Nobody typifies the qualities we contemplated when we developed this award more than Marie-Claude Morice—unparalleled expertise in the cardiac cath laboratory coupled with charisma and a drive to redefine the stereotype of the interventional cardiologist,” Stone stressed. “She has broken barriers her whole life, including setting new standards for the treatment of left main and complex bifurcation disease, in educating hundreds of cardiology fellows and in serving as an inspiration to future cardiologists around the world.”

“While it is noteworthy that Morice is the first woman to receive this award at TCT,” he added, “her accomplishments are gender neutral, and there is no one more deserving of this special recognition.”

Research achievements

Among Morice’s career achievements is cofounding the French “Coronary Stenting without Coumadin” study group, which contributed to the therapeutic revolution brought about by stents.

Morice also was a principal investigator of the RAVEL trial. The results, published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2002, showed that sirolimus-eluting stents improve prevention of neointimal proliferation, restenosis and associated clinical events compared with bare-metal stents and helped usher in a new era in interventional cardiology.

More recently, Morice joined the executive committee of the SYNTAX trial, where she leads a subgroup focusing on patients with left main disease.

“The work of our committee generated publications that resulted in significant changes in the European and American guidelines for the treatment of coronary left main disease,” she said.

Morice hopes to continue to witness the development of innovative treatments designed to improve patient care, particularly in the field of structural heart disease with regard to percutaneous aortic valves.