Born on June 7, 1909, in Westfield, New Jersey, Virginia Apgar graduated from Mount Holyoke College in 1929 and from the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1933. After an internship at Presbyterian Hospital, New York, she held residencies in the relatively new specialty of anesthesiology at the University of Wisconsin and then at Bellevue Hospital, New York, in 1935╨1937. In 1936 she was appointed an instructor of anesthesiology at Columbia. She advanced to assistant professor in 1938 and to associate professor in 1942 and in 1949 became the first woman to hold a full professorship on Columbia╒s medical faculty. From 1938 she was also director of the department of anesthesiology at Columbia╨Presbyterian Medical Center.
An interest in obstetric procedure, and particularly in the treatment of the newborn, led her to develop a simple system for quickly evaluating the condition and viability of newly delivered infants. As finally presented in 1952, the Apgar Score system relied on five simple observations to be made by delivery room personnel╤nurses or interns╤on the infant within one minute of birth, observations designated mnemonically appearance (color), pulse, grimace (reflexes), activity (muscle tone), and respiration. Numerical scores of 0 to 2 for each category yielded a total that proved to be a reliable guide to the infant╒s health and to the necessity for immediate attention by the physician. The Apgar Score system soon came into general use throughout the United States and was adopted by several other countries. In 1959 Apgar left Columbia and took a degree in public health from The Johns Hopkins University. She then became head of the division of congenital malformations of the National Foundation╨March of Dimes. In 1967 she was promoted to director of basic research of the National Foundation, and in 1968 she became senior vice-president for medical affairs. In 1972 she published Is My Baby All Right? She died in New York City on August 7, 1974.
