Thomas J. Fogarty, MD passes away at age 91

by Contributed Content on January 7, 2026

Editor’s note: The following obituary was posted on the Fogarty Innovation website.

It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of our founder, Thomas J. Fogarty, MD. Tom passed away peacefully on December 28, 2025. He was 91.

Tom dedicated his career to improving patient care. A cardiovascular surgeon and  a gifted engineer, Tom had an innate ability to envision practical solutions to the problems he observed at the bedside. As an innovator and entrepreneur, his relentless pursuit of “a better way,” fueled numerous inventions that fundamentally changed surgical practice. These include the industry-standard Fogarty balloon embolectomy catheter, which transformed what had been a high-morbidity, high-mortality open procedure for removing blood clots in the legs into a minimally invasive approach; the Hancock Tissue Heart Valve; and the AneuRx Endovascular Aortic Stent Graft, among many others.

Over the course of his career, Tom was awarded over 190 medical patents; founded or co-founded more than 45 medical technology companies; and received numerous prestigious honors recognizing his contributions to medical science. These include the Lemelson-MIT Prize; induction into the National Inventors Hall of Fame; and the Presidential Medal of Technology and Innovation.

Dr. Fogarty’s inventive spirit revealed itself early and extended well beyond medicine. At just 12 years old, frustrated by being jolted off the back of his friend’s motor scooter, he invented the centrifugal clutch—a technology that is still used today.  His curiosity and entrepreneurial drive later led him into winemaking; in 1981, he founded the Thomas Fogarty Winery and Vineyards to share a business with his family.

In 2007, he established Fogarty Innovation (previously known as the Fogarty Institute for Innovation) on the campus of El Camino Health, guided by a clear vision: to spur medical device innovation, improve patient care, and lower healthcare costs. Today, under the leadership of CEO Andrew Cleeland, Fogarty Innovation continues his legacy by mentoring the next generation of innovators, strengthening the medtech ecosystem through education and alliances, and upholding his “patient first” philosophy in all that we do.

In 2024, with the generous support and shared vision of the Linda & Mike Mussallem Foundation, Fogarty Innovation launched the Thomas J. Fogarty Innovation Prize to ensure his legacy would endure for generations to come. The Prize honors the magnitude of Tom’s contributions by recognizing transformational medical technologies and the collaboration and grit required to bring new therapies to patients and improve human health.

The inaugural Fogarty Prize was awarded earlier this year to the team behind Farapulse, a breakthrough therapy that is transforming the treatment of atrial fibrillation.

Tom is survived by  his wife, Rosalee; their four children, Thomas James Jr., Heather Brennan, Patrick Erin, and Jonathan David; and ten grandchildren.

We are immensely grateful for all Tom did for patient care, for the medtech innovation ecosystem, and for so many of us personally—as a leader, a mentor, and a friend. His relentless curiosity, refusal to accept the status quo, and boundless imagination reshaped the field and continue to inspire generations of innovators. We will miss him more than we can say.

If you feel moved to honor Tom’s life, we invite you to consider a gift to Fogarty Innovation in his memory. Supporting the organization he founded is one way to ensure that his curiosity, mentorship, and optimism continue to live on through the people and ideas he so deeply believed in. You can email Allie Gregorian to arrange your gift or use the “Donate” button on the site.

Photo courtesy of Fogarty Innovation