Dr. Joseph P. Ornato is Professor of Emergency Medicine and Internal Medicine (Cardiology) at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Medical Center in Richmond, Virginia. He is also an Affiliated Professor, VCU College of Engineering, Department of Computer Science, and Medical Director of the Richmond Ambulance Authority and Richmond Fire and EMS. He has been a Lifetime Member of the American College of Emergency Physicians since 1979.
Born in New Haven, Connecticut, he graduated from Boston University Medical School magna cum laude. He completed his training in Internal Medicine at New York City's Mount Sinai Hospital and Cardiology at New York Hospital-Cornell University Medical Center. He is triple board-certified (Internal Medicine, Cardiology, Emergency Medicine). Dr. Ornato was the inaugural Chairman of Emergency Medicine at VCU, started its EM Residency and Fellowships, served as its Chairman for 24 years, and is still a full-time EM faculty member.
Dr. Ornato is an active researcher focused on acute cardiovascular/prehospital care and cardiopulmonary resuscitation. He served as the American Editor of the journal Resuscitation for 23 years and is currently on its Editorial Board. He Chaired the American Heart Association's (AHA) National Emergency Cardiovascular Care Committee and its Advanced Cardiac Life Support Subcommittee. Dr. Ornato served as the AHA’s national representative to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's National Heart Attack Alert Program's Coordinating Committee and Chaired its Science-Base Subcommittee. Dr. Ornato has been a special consultant for the Circulatory System Devices Panel of the Food and Drug Administration. He chaired the National Steering Committee on the NIH/AHA/Industry Public Access Defibrillation Trial. He was the Principal Investigator on a Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Bioterrorism Training grant.
Dr. Ornato served as Cardiac Co-Chairman of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium (ROC) and as Principal Investigator for VCU on the NIH-sponsored Neurological Emergency Treatment Trials (NETT) Network. Dr. Ornato was inducted into the prestigious National Academy of Medicine (formerly the Institute of Medicine) in 2008, which elects only 70 U.S. members yearly. Among his 29 local, regional, and national awards, he was particularly honored to receive the 2016 American Heart Association’s National Clinical Research Prize, which is bestowed upon only one cardiovascular clinical researcher annually. From 2016 to 21, Dr. Ornato served as Deputy Director of the Weil Institute of Emergency Research at Virginia Commonwealth University, one of the world’s premier basic science cardiopulmonary resuscitation laboratories.
Dr. Ornato is the VCU site co-PI for the NIH ICECAP therapeutic hypothermia duration post-cardiac arrest trial. From 2015-17, he served as PI for an NIH/National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) STTR project developing the infrastructure needed to deliver intranasal naloxone by drone to bystanders at the scene of a life-threatening opioid overdose. He is currently Co-PI in collaboration with Duke University on a $4-million American Heart Association, 4-year HERN project implementing the first U.S. programs to deliver automated external defibrillators (AEDs) to bystanders by drone to treat out-of-hospital cardiac arrest victims. In Stanford University’s latest “Top 2% Worldwide Ranking of Researchers,” Dr. Ornato ranks in the top 2% of researchers worldwide in all science disciplines.
Finally, Dr. Ornato led the Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium triage medical team at Greenwich and Beach Streets in New York City for the first 12 hours after the World Trade Center attack on September 11, 2001.
About This Award
The Award for Outstanding Contribution in Research is presented to an ACEP member who has made a significant contribution to research in emergency medicine.
