Morton Mower, MD, a former cardiologist based in Baltimore, has died at age 89, Mercury News reported May 2.
Dr. Mower helped invent an automatic implantable defibrillator, which corrects a patient's inefficient heartbeat with an electric shock to resume its regular rhythm.
The FDA approved the technology in 1985, and it was eventually sold to pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly. Dr. Mower then became the company's director of medical research.
Dr. Mower attended Johns Hopkins and the University of Maryland School of Medicine. He served as chief of cardiology at Sinai Hospital for several years.