Morris Simon

In January 2006, the Department of Radiology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center dedicated their most advanced chest readings room in his memory as the "Simon Room."

Morris Simon died of cardiac arrest at age 79 on January 17, 2005, at his home in Boston. At the time he was serving as Professor Emeritus at Harvard Medical School, and also the Radiologist in Chief and Director of Radiology at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston.

In its colder form, the filter is more compact. It is inserted through a catheter into the patient, then expands when it reaches the temperature of the body. The filter locks in place near the heart, acting as a sieve to stop blood clots from traveling toward the lungs. Still in use today, the device entered testing in the 1980s before it was approved for wide use thereafter. In his New York Times obituary, Herbert Y. Kressel, a professor of Radiology at Harvard, remembered Simon for his work, which demonstrated "an incredible breadth of creativity" and said that Simon "pioneered the medical use of nitinol."

Simon participated the first nationwide collaborative pulmonary embolism trial in the early 1970s. It was in this context that he developed a widely used flexible filter to catch and dissolve clots in the bloodstream, the "Simon-Nitinol Vena Cava Filter." His research began in the 1960s, when he had adapted a metal alloy of nickel and titanium called Nitinol and which had thermal-memory properties. This alloy was previously used in military and aerospace contexts: at different temperatures its shape can be manipulable, when cooled, or spring into a predetermined shape when warmed. Simon modified the alloy for use at or below body temperature.

In 1958, he was recruited by Felix Fleischner to become Assistant in Radiology at Harvard Medical School, where he remained for the rest of his life. Two years later, he was promoted to acting director at Beth Israel Hospital (now Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center) Radiology Department, where he became director shortly thereafter. Between 1963 and 1970, Simon held the positions of Radiologist in Chief and Director of Clinical Radiology at the medical center. Following his long teaching career at Harvard Medical School, Simon retired as Professor of Radiology Emeritus in 1997.

Simon received his undergraduate and medical degrees from Witwatersrand University, South Africa. In 1949, together with his wife Josephine, they moved to London, where he received his training in Radiology and imaging at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons.

Records of Morris Simon's medical research are held in the Morris Simon Papers, 1934–2005 collection at the Center for the History of Medicine at Harvard Medical School's Countway Library of Medicine in Boston, Mass.

Dr. Morris Simon, MB, BCH, (1926–2005) was a South African-born American radiologist, professor, and inventor. His medical practice was based primarily at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, where he specialized in chest radiology. He is also credited with a number of medical inventions, including a flexible filter for dissolving blood clots, and innovations that streamlined patient care and records holding.