Noted physician founded Peace Prize- winning group
Herbert L. Abrams, a pioneering physician, student of presidential disability and co- founder of a medical group that received the Nobel Peace Prize for its work to eliminate the possibility of nuclear war, died Jan. 20 at his home in Palo Alto, Calif. He was 95.
His death was announced by Stanford University, where he was a longtime faculty member. The cause was not disclosed.
In medicine, Dr. Abrams was a specialist in interventional radiology who was known for expanding the use of X- rays and other imaging technology for treatment rather than merely diagnosis.
He became renowned as one of the founders of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, bringing together doctors from the United States and the Soviet Union to advocate for tighter international controls over nuclear weapons. The organization was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985.
For years, Abrams said he was confident that no nation would dare to use nuclear weapons. But, in explaining his heightened concerns about their possible use, he told the Los Angeles Times in 1989 that it began to “dawn on me that these weapons of annihilation were being considered for use in the settlement of disputes between nations.”
Former defence secretary William J. Perry praised the work of Abrams and the physicians’ group in a statement released by Stanford: “The forces maintaining nuclear weapons and creating the danger that we might use them are very powerful and very hard to stop, and Herb and the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War were an early voice of sanity in this field.”
Abrams’s career included what he called the “four dimensions of bio- medicine”: patient care, research, teaching and advocacy. As a radiologist, he had a major role in developing what is known as angiography, or a technique of creating images of the blood vessels and heart.
Angiography has proved to be a useful tool in helping physicians eliminate blockages in coronary arteries and has been beneficial in the prevention and treatment of heart attacks.
Abrams was the author of a 1961 textbook, Angiography, one of the principal medical texts in the field. An updated version, which appeared nearly 40 years later, was called simply Abrams’ Angiography.
As a demonstration of the breadth of his personal interests, Abrams was also the author of another book, The President Has Been Shot: Confusion, Disability, and the 25th Amendment in the Aftermath of the Attempted Assassination of Ronald Reagan ( 1992).
Among other matters, the book dealt with the sometimes competing demands of law, privacy, national security, doctor- patient relationships and the public’s right to know.
Known for his social awareness and humanitarian concerns, Abrams was also considered strict and demanding in his approach to the physician’s duties. During his nearly 20 years as a professor at Harvard University’s medical school, diagnostic computed tomography ( CT) equipment was sometimes in short supply in the Boston area. Resident physicians working under his authority sometimes chafed at his insistence that they make time to use the equipment and keep it constantly available for diagnostic purposes.
“You’re doing this,” he reportedly said. “This is your responsibility and you need to get the residents comfortable with it.”
Abrams taught, lectured and conducted research while serving as a professor and director of diagnostic radiology at Stanford from 1960 to 1967. He taught at Harvard Medical School from 1967 to 1985 and was also chief radiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Dana- Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.
After returning to Stanford in 1985, he taught radiology and did research at the Center for International Security and Cooperation, trying to develop a better understanding of international security during the nuclear age.
Herbert Leroy Abrams was born Aug. 16, 1920, in Brooklyn into an immigrant family that, according to Stanford, was in the hardware business. He graduated from Cornell University in 1941 and received a medical degree in 1946 from the old Long Island College of Medicine ( now called State University of New York Downstate). He completed a radiology residency at Stanford in 1952.
Survivors include his wife of 73 years, the former Marilyn Spitz of Palo Alto; two children; three grandchildren; and three greatgrandchildren.
He was known for his love of tennis, which he continued to play until less than a month before his death.
Through his work in angiography, Abrams gained deep insight into the workings of the human body and the sensitivity of major organs to alterations in their supply of blood.
But in a 1986 article in Stanf ord Medicine magazine, he maintained that the possible use of nuclear arms constituted “the central health issue of the 20th century.”