Dr. Zipes received his B.A. cum laude from Dartmouth College in 1961, his M.D. cum laude from Harvard Medical School in 1964 and his postgraduate training at Duke University Medical Center from 1964 to 1968. He joined Indiana University School of Medicine in 1970 and became Professor of Medicine in 1976, Distinguished Professor of Medicine, Pharmacology and Toxicology in 1994, and Director of the Cardiology Division and Krannert Institute of Cardiology in 1995.
He is a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians. He is past president of the: Indianapolis Opera; Cardiac Electrophysiology Society; Association of University Cardiologists; North American Society of Pacing and Electrophysiology/Heart Rhythm Society; and American College of Cardiology.
For the American Board of Internal Medicine, he is past chairman of the subspecialty board on Cardiovascular Disease and of Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology, and past chairman of the entire Board. He was the founding editor of the Journal of Cardiovascular Electrophysiology (1990-2004) and is now the founding editor of Heart Rhythm, the new journal of the Heart Rhythm Society. He has published almost 800 articles and 18 books, and is a co-editor of Cardiac Electrophysiology, From Cell to Bedside, and of Braunwald’s Heart Disease, A Textbook of Cardiovascular Medicine.
From the American Heart Association he has received the Distinguished Achievement Award (1989), the Herrick Award (1997), and the Cor Vitae Award (2004). He has received the Distinguished Scientist Award from the North American Society of Pacing and Electrophysiology/Heart Rhythm Society (1995) as well as from the American College of Cardiology (1996), and the Cardiostim Medal (2006).
He is a fellow of the European Society of Cardiology, Heart Rhythm Society, American Heart Association, and Master of the American College of Cardiology. In 2001, he received the “Sagamore of the Wabash” from the Governor of Indiana, Frank O’Bannon, the highest honor bestowed upon a citizen of Indiana, and on June 2, 2004, the Hon Baron P. Hill, House of Representatives, read a tribute about Dr. Zipes into the Congressional Record.
To celebrate his tenure as Division Chief, the following were endowed: the Medtronic Zipes Chair in Cardiology and the Joan and Douglas Zipes Visiting Professorship, both at Indiana University; the Douglas P. Zipes, MD Lectureship at the Heart Rhythm Society Annual Scientific Sessions; and the Douglas P. Zipes, MD Distinguished Young Scientist Award at the American College of Cardiology Annual Scientific Sessions.
Dr. Zipes has been recognized as the Awardee of 75 Years of Medical Excellence, Duke University Medical Center, Honorary Foreign Member of the Argentine Society of Cardiology 2007, and Distinguished Alumnus Award, Duke University Medical Alumni Association 2007.
Dr. Zipes has a regular column for the Saturday Evening Post called “Heart Health: Ask Dr. Zipes (www.neighborhood-heart-watch.org). With his wife as co-author, Dr. Zipes has published a short story serialized in the Saturday Evening Post called “Stolen Hearts”. He has published a travel story “Into Africa”, also in the Post. His outside interests include fiction writing, opera, and family. He has three children and five grandchildren.
