The Jarvik-7 Artificial Heart was the invention of a lifetime for Robert Jarvik. Born in Michigan in 1946, Robert Jarvik was raised in Connecticut before moving on to Syracuse University, where he graduated. Jarvik then went to New York University to earn a graduate degree in medical engineering. In 1976, Robert earned his M.D. from the University of Utah. Since he didn't pursue an internship or enter into a residency program, he's never practiced medicine as a medical doctor.

Robert Jarvik's Jarvik-7 was an invention derived from an ongoing collaboration of researchers who were able to contribute their expertise to the project before Jarvik took the lead. Paul Winchell's artificial heart was the first artificial heart invention. Winchell, through his generous patent donation, was instrumental in the development of the Jarvik-7.

Jarvik's innovative artificial heart received overwhelming media attention and the media focused the attention on the patients who eventually were permitted to get a heart transplant. Jarvik, confident of his abilities and his product, went on to form a heart manufacturing company dubbed Symbion, Inc. Jarvik lost his company but went on and formed Jarvik Heart, Inc.

Robert Jarvik is married to Marilyn vos Savant. She is a well-known columnist for Parade Magazine and is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records for the Highest IQ. The couple currently lives in New York.