Richard F. Edlich

Distinguished Professor Emeritus Richard F. Edlich was a Ford Foundation Scholar who gained early admission to Lafayette College at age 15. Three years later, he was accepted as an early admission student to New York University School of Medicine, where he received his MD. During his eight-year surgical residency, Dr. Edlich also received his PhD becoming Distinguished Professor of Plastic Surgery and Professor of Biomedical Engineering.

During his years at Virginia, Dr. Edlich founded, designed, and served as director of the 16-bed University of Virginia Burn and Wound Healing Center. Collaborating with other doctors, their efforts resulted in numerous innovative products, surgical techniques, and tests used throughout the world. The Reinforced Steri-Strip™ 3MTM,Minneapolis, MN, has been used in more than a billion patients for wound closure. A surgical wound cleanser, poloxamer-188 (Shur-Clens™, ConvaTec), was devised to remove bacterial contaminants from the wound without tissue toxicity. This wound cleanser has successfully decontaminated wounds in more than ten million patients without a reported toxic reaction. A more concentrated solution of poloxamer-188 forms a gel that incorporates antibiotics for prevention of burn wound sepsis. The Argyle Edlich Gastric Lavage Kit has been used throughout the world to remove blood clots and poisons from patients’ stomachs. Endoscopic surgical gastrostomy was first devised by his team of physicians as a safe technique of tube feeding.

Dr. Edlich’s book, Medicine’s Deadly Dust, is a nationally acclaimed report documenting the life-threatening dangers of powders on surgical and examination gloves. On September 24, 2008, Dr. Edlich teamed up with eleven other gifted health professionals to submit a Citizen’s Petition to the Food and Drug Administration to ban cornstarch powder on medical gloves.

A specialist in research on the biology of wound repair and infection, he is a co-author in seven books and more than 4000 scientific articles and chapters on these subjects. In 2000, Dr. Edlich received the Harvey Stuart Allen Medal from the American Burn Association in recognition of his significant contributions to burn care. Dr. Edlich with the collaboration of others, championed the development of basic and advanced life-support training for physicians, emergency medical technicians, and paramedics; a telemetered medical system for emergency care; the rape crisis center; the crisis center for psychiatric emergencies; crisis center for the deaf,poison control center,and the Pegasus Flight.

Dr. Edlich has been battling MS for years and furthers research efforts to find a cure for himself and others.