Lasker, Mary

In the late 1940s, Mary Lasker, patron of the arts in New York City, became the first major health lobbyist. She took on cancer and heart disease as her challenge to medical science and successfully mobilized investigators, industrialists, and Congresspersons to provide national resources for their study. The National Heart Act of 1948, and the NationalHeart Institute, were her crowning accomplishments that most influenced our story of CVD epidemiology and prevention.