PHAWARE GLOBAL ASSOCIATION
MEDICAL ADVISORY BOARD


STEVEN ABMAN, MD

PROFESSOR OF PEDIATRICS AND DIRECTOR OF THE PEDIATRIC HEART LUNG CENTER (PHLC) AT THE UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER ANSCHUTZ SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AND CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL COLORADO

Dr. Abman is Professor of Pediatrics and Director of the Pediatric Heart Lung Center (PHLC) at the University of Colorado Denver Anschutz School of Medicine and Children’s Hospital Colorado. He obtained his undergraduate degree at Carleton College, attended Northwestern University Medical School, and completed his internship and residency in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Colorado. After serving as Chief Resident, he completed a 3-year fellowship in Pediatric Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, joined the faculty of the University of Colorado in 1986, and was promoted to Professor in the tenure track in 1996. 

Throughout his career, Dr. Abman has maintained strong translational research and clinical interests in neonatal lung injury, lung vascular development, pulmonary hypertension, chronic lung disease in the newborn (bronchopulmonary dysplasia, BPD), persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn (PPHN), and related areas.  With outstanding collaborators in the PHLC and others, his lab explored many original basic and clinical studies on the physiology, pathobiology and treatment of pulmonary vascular disease in the newborn, which included early studies on nitric oxide (NO) biology and therapy in diverse experimental models and human preterm and term newborns. His lab continues to explore basic mechanisms through which early disruption of angiogenesis and “angiocrine signaling” during lung development impairs alveolarization and contributes to long-lasting abnormalities of lung structure, especially after preterm birth. 

His interests in both clinical and laboratory research and patient care led to the launch the PHLC at Children’s Hospital Colorado, for which Dr. Abman has served as Director for nearly 25 years. The PHLC has developed novel clinical care approaches that include development of the Pediatric Pulmonary Hypertension Program and Ventilator Care Program. Dr. Abman founded and continues to serve as Director of the Pediatric Pulmonary Hypertension Network (PPHNet), a multicenter clinical research and care group consisting of 10 leading PH centers from throughout North America, and initiated and led a joint American Heart Association/American Thoracic Society working group to establish the first joint guidelines for the care of children with pediatric pulmonary hypertension. 

Dr. Abman has received several national awards, including the Outstanding Investigator Award from the American Academy of Pediatrics (1998), the E. Mead Johnson Award of the SPR (1999), and the Distinguished Achievement Award of the American Thoracic Society for outstanding contributions to fighting respiratory disease through research, education, patient care, and advocacy (2015). He was recently selected for the Mary Ellen Avery Award from the American Pediatric Society and Society for Pediatric Research (2016). Dr. Abman has been active as an educator and research mentor for numerous trainees, which was recognized by the Career Teachers Scholar Award (2012) from the University of Colorado and the Maureen Andrews Mentorship Award from the SPR (2015).  Dr. Abman has also served or led numerous study sections and workshops of the ATS, American Heart Association and NIH, as an Associate Editor for the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, and on editorial boards for many leading journals.


WILLIAM R. AUGER, MD 

NASDAQ helps phaware kick off PH Awareness Month in NYC.

Professor of Clinical Medicine at UC San Diego School of Medicine. Director of Outreach and Academic Affairs for UCSD’s Pulmonary Thromboendarterectomy (PTE) Program.

Dr. Auger is currently a Professor of Clinical Medicine at UC San Diego School of Medicine and the director of Outreach and Academic Affairs for UCSD’s Pulmonary Thromboendarterectomy (PTE) Program. Having devoted nearly 30 years to the care and management of PTE patients, his academic interests focus on the evaluation and treatment of pulmonary hypertension, particularly chronic thromboembolic disease and other large vessel pulmonary vascular disorders.

Dr. Auger accepted his faculty appointment at UC San Diego in 1989 after he completed a three-year pulmonary and critical care fellowship at the same university. Prior to this, he undertook a critical care fellowship at Ellis Hospital, an affiliate of Albany Medical Center in New York. He completed his Internal Medicine residency at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, New York after earning his medical degree from the University of Rochester School of Medicine.

Dr. Auger is a member of the American Thoracic Society, the International CTEPH Association, the Pulmonary Vascular Research Institute, the Pulmonary Hypertension Association, the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation, the International Society on Thrombosis and Hemostasis, and a fellow of the American College of Chest Physicians.


VICTOR F. TAPSON, MD, FCCP, FRCP

#ManiUpForACure for PH Awareness Month.  

Professor of Medicine, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Director, Clinical Research for the Women’s Guild Lung Institute. Director, Venous Thromboembolism and Pulmonary Vascular Disease Research Program. Associate Director, Pulmonary and Critical Care Division 

Dr. Tapson has devoted his medical career to patient care, research, and teaching in pulmonary hypertension (PH) and pulmonary embolism. After fellowship, he co-founded the Duke Lung Transplant program, as well as starting the Duke Pulmonary Vascular Disease Center with Abby Poms.  He served as Director for the next 20 years.  He and his team conducted clinical trials and cared for patients as therapy evolved.  He served on the steering committee for worldwide clinical trials, including the IV epoprostenol trial (NEJM 1996), COMPASS-2, TRIUMPH, the FREEDOM studies, and the recently published selexipag trial. His research has been NIH- and industry sponsored. He has cared for thousands of PH patients, having placed over 500 on parenteral therapy over the past 25 years. He has served on the steering committees for the World PH Guidelines (Venice, 2003, Dana Point, 2008, Nice, France, 2013). He started the first PAH journal (Advances in PH). 

In the field of venous thromboembolism, Dr. Tapson has served on the ACCP Consensus Statement for Venous Thromboembolism a number of times. He served as Chairman for the ATS Consensus Statement and Clinical Practice Guidelines for the Diagnostic Approach to Acute Venous Thromboembolism.  He has served as world-wide principal investigator PI or co-PI for several venous thromboembolism registries including DVT-FREE, IMPROVE, NABOR, ENDORSE. He is currently PI for the OPTALYSE PE study, the BiO2 IVCF study, and is also PI for the upcoming world-wide TAFIa clinical trial in acute PE, and the FLARE clot-extraction study. His interest in both PH and pulmonary embolism have merged with his interest in chronic thromboembolic PH and he serves on the steering committee for the 36 site U.S. CTEPH registry. 

In 2014, he left Duke for an outstanding opportunity at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center where he continues this work.


ROHAM T ZAMANIAN, MD, FCCP

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ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF MEDICINE (PULMONARY AND CRITICAL CARE MEDICINE) and Director of the Adult Pulmonary Hypertension Program at Stanford University School of Medicine.  

Dr. Zamanian completed his medical school and residency at the University of California, Irvine Medical Center and moved to Stanford University for a fellowship in pulmonary and critical care medicine.  Dr. Zamanian extended his training by completing the eBay Pulmonary Vascular Disease super-fellowship at the Vera Moulton Wall Center (VMWC) for Pulmonary Vascular Diseases at Stanford University under the mentorship of Drs. Marlene Rabinovitch, Ramona Doyle, and Jeffery Feinstein.  After completing his training, he joined the faculty of the Division of Pulmonary & Critical Care and Vera Moulton Wall Center for Pulmonary Vascular Disease and in 2007 was selected as the Director of the Adult Pulmonary Hypertension (PH) Program – a rare-disease program which he has grown to include five attending physicians, 2 PH post-doctoral fellows, 4 advanced care practitioners, and 6 clinical and research staff evaluating.  The Stanford Adult Pulmonary Hypertension Program evaluates and treats approximately 600-700 PH patients annually.


Besides an active clinical career, Dr. Zamanian is extensively engaged in clinical translational research.  He currently directs the Vera Moulton Wall Center clinical database and biobank and focuses his research on clinical characterization and impact of novel risk factors such as methamphetamine use, and biomarkers, such as insulin resistance, in pulmonary arterial hypertension.  Beyond industry clinical trials and registries, Dr. Zamanian has re-focused the research mission of the Stanford PH program by collaborating with basic science faculty and implementing several proof-of-concept and phase II clinical trials of novel therapeutics developed at Stanford University.  Dr. Zamanian’s research is currently funded by multiple grants from the National Institutes of Health (NHLBI and NIAID), United Therapeutics, and the VMWC.