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During the 1930s and '40s, Dr. Virginia Apgar noticed a troubling trend involving newborns.
While the infant mortality rate in the US had declined, the rate of infant deaths within the first 24 hours after birth remained constant. As an obstetric anesthesiologist, Apgar was able to identify physical characteristics that could distinguish healthy newborns from those in trouble.
Apgar's observations led to the development in 1952 of the Apgar score, a quick and convenient method for immediately evaluating how well the newborn weathered the birthing process, especially the effects of obstetric anesthesia.
To honor Apgar's contribution to neonatology -- the medical care of newborn infants -- Google dedicated its Doodle Thursday to the doctor on her 109th birthday.
Generally conducted one and five minutes after birth, the test assigns a score of zero to two for each of five criteria: appearance, pulse, grimace, activity and respiration (APGAR). Scores of seven and higher are generally normal, four to six fairly low, and three and lower are generally regarded as critically low. The test helps medical personnel determine whether a newborn needs immediate medical care.
The test spread through US hospitals in the 1960s, proving a useful measurement for quickly assessing a newborn's physical condition. The technique is still used in hospitals throughout the US.
Apgar graduated fourth in her class at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1933, and in 1949 became the first woman named a full professor at the school.
In 1959, she embarked on a second career, earning a master's degree in public health from Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health. Armed with her new degree, she went to work at the March of Dimes Foundation, directing research to prevent and treat birth defects.
She also published more than 60 scientific articles and several essays for newspapers and magazines during her career. Her 1972 book Is My Baby All Right? explains the causes and treatment of common birth defects and proposes precautions to help improve the chances of having a healthy baby.
Apgar died at the age of 65 in 1974.
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Google is celebrating Dr. Virginia Apgar, a groundbreaking figure in the field of anesthesiology known for inventing a scoring system that is credited with saving countless newborn babies’ lives, with its new Google Doodle.
Born in 1909 in New Jersey, she is best known for inventing the Apgar Score, the first standardized way to test a newborn baby’s health in the first few minutes after the baby is born. Babies are assessed under five factors: appearance, pulse, grimace, activity and respiration. The first letter of each factor spells out Apgar’s name.
While Apgar died in 1974, the Google Doodle celebrates what would have been Apgar’s 109th birthday and features a cartoon of her conducting her namesake test, which was invented the test in 1952.
Aside from the Apgar Score, she also accomplished numerous feats throughout her career. Apgar was the first woman to become a full professor at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. But her path to success was filled with numerous obstacles. Although she was determined to become a surgeon, Apgar was discouraged from the pursuit by Dr. Alan Whipple, who was the chair of surgery at Columbia. Whipple maintained that the other women he had trained had failed to establish successful careers in surgery.
But Whipple also recognized that Apgar’s skill could further the field of anesthesia, and she spent a year training in it after completing her surgical residency in 1937. Ahead of her time, Apgar had trouble finding people to work for her until anesthesia became a more acknowledged specialty in the 1940s, according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine.
Later, Apgar’s studies of obstetrical anesthesia led to her creating the Apgar score. After some initial resistance, the testing method became widely used throughout the world and is still used today.
Virginia Apgar, the American obstetrical anesthetist who is renowned as the inventor of the Apgar score, has been honoured in the Google Doodle for June 7, 2018 on what would have been her 109th birthday.
Dr. Virginia Apgar remains an important figure in neonatology to this day, due to the standardised method that she created to assess a newborn baby’s health continuing to be used.
For this life-saving discovery, Apgar has also received many accolades for improving the infant mortality rate in the US. But who was Dr. Virginia Apgar?
Virginia Apgar has been honoured in the Google Doodle for June 7, 2018 on her 109th birthday
Who was Virginia Apgar?
Born on June 7, 1909, in Westfield, New Jersey to a father who was an insurance executive but had an interest in invention and astronomy, Virginia was also encouraged to take an interest in science.
In addition to this, her career in medicine could have also been as a result of one of her brothers dying of tuberculosis and another suffering from a chronic illness.
After leaving high school, Virginia knew she wanted to become a doctor and went on to study zoology with minors in physiology and chemistry at Mount Holyoke College in 1929.
She then graduated fourth in her class from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, where she also completed a residency in 1937.
However, because so many female surgeons had tried to launch their careers but had ultimately failed, Virginia was discouraged from moving her career in this direction by Dr. Allen Whipple.
She was encouraged to practice anesthesiology and trained under Dr. Ralph Waters at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the first anesthesiology department in the US.
After training under Dr. Ernest Rovenstine in New York, Virginia became a fully-fledged anesthesiologist in 1927 and went back to P&S to become the director of a new division of anesthesia for 10 years.
In 1959, Virginia graduated with Master of Public Health from John Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health.
She went on to work to conduct research on birth defects for the March of Dimes Foundation and linked gestational age to the problem of premature birth.
Apgar was also an advocate for universal vaccination during the rubella pandemic of 1964-5 and travelled the US, spreading the message of how important birth defect detection is.
She has published over 60 scientific articles as well as other shorter essays for newspapers and magazines, for which she has received many awards.
Her 1972 book Is My Baby All Right? explains the causes and treatment of common birth defects and proposes precautions to help improve the chances of having a healthy baby.
Dr. Virginia Apgar never married and died of cirrhosis of the liver on August 7, 1974 at Colombia-Presbyterian Medical Center.
Apgar score
The US infant mortality rate between the 1930s and 1950s decreased despite the number of infant deaths within the first 24 hours after birth remaining constant.
Apgar picked up on this and investigated trends that revealed the difference between healthy infants and babies in trouble.
After intensive research, Virginia invented a method of measuring how healthy a newborn baby is, which was called the Apgar score.
This widely used technique gives every newborn a score of 0, 1 or 2, with 2 meaning that the baby is in optimal condition, for appearance, pulse, grimace, activity and respiration (APGAR).
The scores for the five categories are then compiled and an infant with a 10 would be in the best possible condition.
A baby is scored one minute after birth with additional measurements being made at five minute intervals if the infant’s condition did not improve.
What is a Google Doodle?
Virginia Apgar has been honoured in the Google Doodle for June 7, 2018, on what would have been her 109th birthday.
Google Doodles mark important events around the world with creative illustrations on the search engine’s homepage and is incorporated into the Google logo.
The first Google Doodle marked Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin’s visit to the 1998 Burning Man Festival and was a stick-man standing behind the second ‘o’ in the Google logo.
Today, a team of illustrators, graphic designers, animators and artists work on the Google Doodles and the logos are hyperlinked to a page that provides more information about the cultural event celebrated.
Recent Google Doodles have celebrated Tom Longboat, Heinz Sielmann and S.P.L Sorensen.
