Joel J Nobel

Joel J. Nobel (1935 – August 13, 2014) was a physician and patient safety advocate best known for founding the ECRI Institute.

In 1968 a patient of his at the Presbyterian Hospital at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center died due to a faulty bag valve mask. Nobel tested others of those devices on the market and found many to be ineffective. 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.

Nobel invented the MAX cart, which was a new type of crash cart.