Radiologist and activist Herbert Abrams passes away

Influential radiologist Herbert Abrams, MD, died last week at his home. He was 95.

Abrams was professor emeritus of radiology at the Stanford University School of Medicine, a senior fellow at Stanford’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, and a faculty member at Stanford’s Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC).

He was perhaps best known for co-founding the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), which won the Nobel Prize in 1985. He was also a global authority on cardiovascular radiology, served as editor-in-chief of Postgraduate Radiology and Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiology, and published a comprehensive text on angiography that is still published and read to this day.

Sanjiv Gambhir, MD, PhD, professor and radiology chair at Stanford, praised everything Abrams did for radiology.

“For as long as I have known him, I could only describe Herb Abrams as a class act,” Gambhir said, as quoted on Stanford’s website. “It is upon the shoulders of giants such as Herb that we ourselves stand today at the cutting edge of radiology.”

Lewis Wexler, MD, professor emeritus of radiology at Stanford, worked closely with Abrams both as a resident and a professor. He pointed to Abrams’ impact on Stanford as a whole.

“Under his guidance, Stanford pioneered in the fields of coronary artery imaging and the diagnosis of adult and congenital heart diseases, as well as vascular diseases, such as renal artery narrowing as a cause of hypertension,” Wexler said, as quoted by Stanford.

In 1967, Abrams moved to Boston and became the Philip H. Cook Professor of Radiology at Harvard Medical School and radiologist-in-chief at Brigham and Women’s Hospital’s Dana Farber Cancer Center. And then in the 1980s, he became interested in the long-term effects of nuclear weapons and became an activist, eventually founding IPPNW.

Abrams was also a family man, and he was married to his wife, Marilyn, for 73 years. Stanford’s tribute to Abrams notes that, on his 95th birthday, he played tennis with his son, grandson, and great-grandson on Martha’s Vineyard.

Those interested in memorial donations can visit the Physicians for Social Responsibility website for more information.