Tracy Lynn Faber

Tracy Lynn Faber, PhD, 51 passed away March 24, 2012. Originally from Apollo, PA where she graduated high school with a full scholarship to Case Western Reserve University, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering (BSE) in 1982. She then enrolled at the University of Texas at Arlington where she received masters and PhD degrees in Biomedical Engineering. After graduating, she joined the faculty of the University of Texas, Southwestern as an assistant professor in the radiology and biomedical engineering departments. She joined Emory University in 1992 where she remained for the rest of her career. In 2009 she attained the rank of professor of radiology and imaging sciences with a second appointment in the joint Emory/Georgia Institute of Technology Biomedical Engineering Department.

From the beginning Tracy’s work involved applying computers to aid in the creation and analysis of medical images. The primary focus of her work was imaging the heart and resulted in significant contributions to health care. Her accomplishments made the diagnosis of myocardial disease more sensitive and accurate.

Tracy’s first publication evaluated different approaches for reconstructing nuclear medicine images of the heart. She published a series of four landmark manuscripts describing techniques for automatic computer detection of the surface of the heart as it pumps blood. From this she could determine how much blood the heart was pumping and which parts of the muscle were and were not working. Also during this time, she fused and displayed information from two modalities (nuclear medicine and MR scanning) to reveal more information than was possible from the separate images. This would be a consistent theme for the rest of her career. As the computer power grew and scanning technologies improved, she developed more and more sophisticated and accurate methods.

In 2000 Tracy began fusing images of the coronary arteries from CT scans with the nuclear medicine images of the heart. This permitted more accurate determination of where arteries were blocked and what affect the blockage was having on the heart. Her techniques were combined into Emory University’s software, the Emory Cardiac Toolbox. Currently the software is being used in more than 20,000 hospitals around the world. It is fair to say that Dr. Faber’s work has contributed to the accurate diagnosis of million s of patients with heart disease and will help millions more in the future.

Dr. Faber had an international reputation. Her communication skills were excellent and she had a broad and commanding knowledge of her field. During her career she was invited to present twenty-five national and international presentations. Tracy was a scholar, mentor, and friend to many and will be remembered as an avid reader, a music/movies//huge trivia buff, and an extremely loyal Steelers fan.

Dr. Faber was a very devoted wife and stepmother. She is survived by her husband Denis Arra, step-daughters Meredith and Allison Arra, brother Doug Faber, other relatives and numerous friends.

A memorial service will be held Saturday, March 31, 2012 4:00pm at H.M. Patterson and Son Oglethorpe Hill Chapel.