Huntly D. Millar, founder and CEO of Millar Instruments, Inc. was awarded the Laufman-Greatbatch Prize from the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation

Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation

The Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation founded in 1966, is a voluntary consensus organization which promotes knowledge and use of medical instrumentation. It creates standards, educates and certifies technicians, and publishes technical documents, books, periodicals, and...

 (AAMI) in 2001 for his contributions to the advancement of medical instrumentation, such as the Millar Mikro-Tip Catheter and Millar micromanometers.
Millar formed the Texas-based company in 1969 to develop state-of-the-art catheter-tip technology for measuring physiological parameters in research and clinical applications. Today, the company has nearly 100 employees and is marketing its products throughout the world.

The Laufman-Greatbatch Prize, which includes a $5,000 endowment and a commemorative plaque, recognizes individuals for their outstanding service and/or accomplishment with a major impact on a specific medical device or on medical instrumentation in general. Millar catheters have come to represent the “gold standard” for accurate measurement of blood pressure

Blood pressure

Blood pressure is the pressure exerted by circulating blood upon the walls of blood vessels, and is one of the principal vital signs. When used without further specification, "blood pressure" usually refers to the arterial pressure of the systemic circulation. During each heartbeat, BP varies...

, flow and volume in humans, and have become essential for acquisition of accurate hemodynamic data in assessment of pediatric and adult cardiovascular function.

Measurement of pressure elsewhere in the body has become essential for treatment of debilitating and life-threatening conditions. Intracranial pressure

Intracranial pressure

Intracranial pressure is the pressure inside the skull and thus in the brain tissue and cerebrospinal fluid . The body has various mechanisms by which it keeps the ICP stable, with CSF pressures varying by about 1 mmHg in normal adults through shifts in production and absorption of CSF...

 (ICP) measurement in cases of traumatic brain injury

Traumatic brain injury

Traumatic brain injury , also known as intracranial injury, occurs when an external force traumatically injures the brain. TBI can be classified based on severity, mechanism , or other features...

 (TBI) has resulted in rapid treatment in emergency rooms and a dramatic increase in the number of patients surviving such injuries. Millar micromanometers (Leslie A. Geddes

Leslie A. Geddes

Leslie Alexander Geddes was an electrical engineer and physiologist. He has conducted research in electromyography, cardiac output, cardiac pacing, ventricular defibrillation, and blood pressure. He discovered and demonstrated precisely the optimal sites on the chest for defibrillation or pacing...

(1984). Cardiovascular Devices & Their Applications, pp. 46–47), are used in catheter-tip transducers such as the Codman Micro Sensor for measurement of ICP.
Millar catheters are cited in well over two thousand articles in peer-reviewed journals, such as the American Heart Association journals and American Journal of Physiology.

The heart of the Millar pressure-tip transducer is the piezoresistive effect

Piezoresistive effect

The piezoresistive effect describe the changing resistivity of a semiconductor due to applied mechanical stress. The piezoresistive effect differs from the piezoelectric effect...

 pressure sensor. Measuring pressure at the source delivers a high-fidelity signal without the disadvantages of fluid-filled catheters.

Huntly Millar's contributions to the non-invasive measurement of pulse pressure are well known. Michael F. O'Rourke credits Millar with the development of an applanation tonometer  with the accuracy to record pulse pressure wave fluctuations when the surface of an artery is flattened. These catheter-tipped manometers made possible depiction of the changes in pulse pressure waveforms with age.

Millar was born in Montreal, Canada in 1927 and emigrated to the U.S. in 1954. He resides in Houston, Texas as a permanent resident alien. Millar holds a B.Sc. degree from McGill University

McGill University

Mohammed Fathy is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university bears the name of James McGill, a prominent Montreal merchant from Glasgow, Scotland, whose bequest formed the beginning of the university...

 and an M.Sc. (physics) from the University of Houston

University of Houston

The University of Houston is a state research university, and is the flagship institution of the University of Houston System. Founded in 1927, it is Texas's third-largest university with nearly 40,000 students. Its campus spans 667 acres in southeast Houston, and was known as University of...

. He served as Visiting Professor in the Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics at Baylor College of Medicine

Baylor College of Medicine

Baylor College of Medicine, located in the Texas Medical Center in Houston, Texas, USA, is a highly regarded medical school and leading center for biomedical research and clinical care...

 from 1976 to 1995. He holds 28 United States patents.

References

‘’Leslie A. Geddes: an Interview Conducted by Frederik Nebeker’’ . IEEE History Center, 13 October 2000

Michael F. O'Rourke, "Use of Generalised Transfer Function in Clinical Studies". AtCor Medical, 2005

Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation, Laufman-Greatbatch Prize