Influential AAPI healthcare figures
From artificial hearts in the 1950s to a test tube in 1978 to a mask that saved lives during the COVID-19 pandemic, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) have significantly altered the course of medicine. As we celebrate AAPI Heritage Month in May, we're recognizing some of the influential individuals who have made these transformative contributions.
Tetsuzo Akutsu
Born in Japan in 1922, Akutsu received a medical degree in 1947 and moved to the United States to research artificial hearts at Cleveland Clinic. He made significant advancements in the field and led the first successful experimental implant with a prosthetic heart. In 1964, President Lyndon Johnson made the artificial heart a national project, leading to revolutionary advancements that built on Akutsu’s foundational research.
Min Chueh Chang
This Chinese American’s four decades of in vitro fertilization research and reproductive biology led to the creation of the first test tube baby — Louise Brown, born July 25, 1978, in Oldham England. Two decades earlier, Chang, along with Dr. Gregory Pincus, helped develop the first birth control pill.
Margaret Chung
Born in Santa Barbara in 1889, Chung was the first American-born Chinese female doctor. In the early 1920s, Chung opened one of the first western medicine clinics, located in San Francisco’s Chinatown. She also had an interesting connection to the celebrity world — including taking out Mary Pickford’s tonsils and treating Sophie Tucker, Helen Hayes, and Tallulah Bankhead at the Chinatown clinic.
Fe Del Mundo
Del Mundo dedicated her career to improving care for children in underserved communities. She developed low-cost medical equipment, including an improvised infant incubator, making lifesaving care more accessible in resource-limited settings. Her work helped establish pediatrics as a specialized field in the Philippines and expanded access to care for generations of children.
Yuan-Cheng Fung
Fung transformed medicine by applying engineering principles to the human body. His research explained how blood vessels, lungs, and tissues respond to physical forces, giving physicians and researchers a clearer understanding of how the body functions under stress. His work continues to influence cardiovascular care, surgical techniques, and the design of medical devices.
David Ho
The groundbreaking work of this Taiwanese American AIDS researcher and doctor led to the modern combination anti-retroviral medications that have transformed HIV from a terminal diagnosis to a chronic condition. The impact of the treatment — essentially, eliminating the “death sentence” for those suffering from HIV — led to his being named Time magazine’s 1996 Man of the Year.
Anandi Gopal Joshi
Joshi was the first Hindu and first Indian female doctor of western medicine in the United States after graduating from the Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania. Born in 1865 in Bombay Presidency, British India, Joshi only lived to the age of 21, dying of tuberculosis — which she contracted in the United States — just weeks before her March 31 birthday.
Har Gobind Khorana
Khorana helped decode how DNA directs cells to build proteins, a breakthrough that reshaped modern biology. By mapping the genetic code, his work made it possible to understand and, eventually manipulate, the building blocks of life. Today, that foundation supports everything from genetic testing to gene-based therapies.
Katherine Luzuriaga
Perhaps the most publicized achievement for Luzuriaga, a Filipino American doctor and pediatric immunologist, was being part of a research team that “functionally cured” an HIV-positive infant in 2013. The infant was treated with anti-retroviral drugs and, after 10 months of no longer receiving the medication, no longer had detectable levels of HIV. Time magazine honored that work by naming Luzuriaga to its 2013 list of the 100 Most Influential People in the World.
Venki Ramakrishnan
In 2009, this Indian-born British and American structural biologist shared the Nobel Peace Prize — along with Thomas A. Seitz and Ada Yonath — for the study of ribosomes, structures inside every cell that are involved in making protein.
Kazue Togasaki
Dr. Kazue Togasaki was one of the first Japanese American women to become a doctor in the United States. During World War II, approximately 120,000 people of Japanese descent were incarcerated in internment camps, and Togasaki helped to provide care, particularly for pregnant and delivering women. In her lifetime, she delivered more than 10,000 babies.
Peter Tsai
For those of you who still have some N-95 masks tucked away in your medicine cabinet, you can thank this Taiwanese American inventor. In the 1990s, he developed the materials for a mask that, three decades later, saved millions of lives and helped us get through the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tsai-Fan Yu
In 1973, this Chinese American doctor was the first woman to be appointed as a full professor at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Yu also discovered the cause of gout and developed effective treatments for the condition which are still used today.
