American Heart Association
The American Heart Association (AHA) is a non-profit organization in the United States that funds cardiovascular medical research, educates consumers on healthy living and fosters appropriate cardiac care in an effort to reduce disability and deaths caused by cardiovascular disease and stroke. Originally formed in New York City in 1924 as the Association for the Prevention and Relief of Heart Disease, it is currently headquartered in Dallas, Texas. The American Heart Association is a national voluntary health agency.
B. P. Loughridge
In 1972 Loughridge returned to Tulsa, and founded Thorasic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Inc., which he would head until shortly before his retirement in 1998. to begin what was to become more than a quarter of a century of practice specializing in heart, chest, and vascular surgery. In this practice he would perform more than 10,000 surgeries. In 1974 the American College of Cardiology elected Loughridge as a fellow. Two years later he was elected president of the Tulsa chapter of the American Heart Association. During this period he worked on the development of an artificial heart. In addition to his busy medical practice, Loughridge served as a professor of surgery at the Tulsa campus of the University of Oklahoma School of Medicine and at Oral Roberts University School of Medicine. Loughridge’s partner, Albert Shireky also taught there. Loughridge was the Chief of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery at two of Tulsa’s main hospitals, St. John Hospital and at St. Francis Hospital. He continued to present his research and summaries of his work at various medical conventions. Shortly before he retired from active surgery, he began to serve as an expert witness in legal controversies involving medical issues.