Joel Judovich Nobel (December 8, 1934 – August 13, 2014)[1] was an American anesthesiologist and patient safety advocate best known for founding the crash cart and ECRI Institute.
[2] In 1968, a four-year-old patient of his at the Presbyterian Hospital at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center died due to a faulty bag valve mask.
Nobel, who had alerted others on the staff several times that it was not working properly, was deeply affected by the child's death.
After failing to find anyone to publish his findings, he set up the Emergency Care Research Institute in the 1960s (now ECRI Institute) to publish the Health Devices Journal, which shared information about medical devices.
He died at his Gladwyne, Pennsylvania home from complications of cancer and diabetes, at age 79.