A pediatric pulmonologist, Steven Abman ’75 has transformed care for children with lung diseases around the world. His care for children and their families has motivated him to explore, discover, apply, and achieve significant clinical improvements in lung diseases.
Abman has repeatedly used his research skills in the Abman Lab at Children’s Hospital Colorado (CHCO) to explore, discover, and document new insights into the physiology, biochemistry, and pathophysiology of lung function, as well as the intrauterine environment of fetal lung development, lung function in newborns, and lung maturation over a lifetime. Abman has conducted multiple clinical research projects to evaluate how his discoveries can help children, with his most recognized discovery being an efficacious treatment of pulmonary hypertension. He founded two clinical research networks—the Pediatric Pulmonary Hypertension Network and the BPD Collaborative—for researchers, clinicians, and staff to share ideas, resources, and patient registries to further their impact. He has received more than 115 federal research grants, written more than 600 publications, and managed NIH funding for over 30 years at CHCO.
Abman also created CHCO’s multidisciplinary Pediatric Heart Lung Center and has taught others throughout all of his clinical care and research activities. He has mentored about 55 post-doctoral students and sponsored about 15 international visiting professors. Abman has also been an invited speaker more than 400 times and participated in invited professorships over 75 times. As president of the American Pediatric Society, Abman advocated for patients and led the society’s declaration of the need to address racism and social injustices in medical care.
Abman’s contributions to society through his work in conditions affecting infants and children have been immense and life-changing for countless families. Because of Abman, children and adults have more effective interventions and can breathe more easily. Hundreds of clinicians are also more able to provide effective health care and hundreds of researchers are more prepared to discover new breakthroughs.