23rd Annual Feigenbaum Lecture: History of Echocardiography: A Personal Perspective

Ultrasound was first used to examine the cardiovascular system about 70 years ago. The evolution of echocardiography as a family of diagnostic methods has been marked by ongoing development of novel technologies and clinical applications. The history is interesting and may be of particular interest to those practitioners who use echocardiography to enhance the care of their patients but who do not remember the “early days” of this field. In this article, based on the 23rd Feigenbaum Lecture, the authors discuss the history of echocardiography from the personal perspective of one of the clinicians, who has been a leader in this field for more than 60 years. •Ultrasound has been used to assess the cardiovascular (CV) system for 70 years.•CV ultrasound is now a family of techniques with numerous clinical applications.•The initial applications of CV ultrasound were met with considerable skepticism.•The evolution of CV ultrasound from its beginnings is of interest to clinical users.•Dr. Feigenbaum’s personal involvement in this story has been particularly noteworthy.