Abraham Sanders, M.D.

Dr. Prager is Professor of Clinical Medicine, Director of Clinical Ethics and Chairman of the Medical Ethics Committee at Columbia University Medical Center. He spent two years in the Indian health Service practicing general medicine on the Cheyenne River Sioux Indian Reservation in South Dakota after his medical internship. Dr. Prager held clandestine medical clinics in the Soviet Union during a visit to Refuseniks in 1986, and later set up the first U.S. - Soviet medical student exchange program between Columbia P&S and the First Moscow Medical Academy. Dr. Prager has been a pulmonologist for over 35 years. He is heavily involved in teaching pulmonology and medical ethics to medical students, house officers and nurses. His writings on medicine and medical ethics have appeared in medical journals and textbooks as well as on the Op-Ed pages of The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Dr. Prager is a regular guest lecturer in Israel for the Ben Gurion University MD Program in International Health and Medicine in collaboration with Columbia University Health Sciences. He has received honors for his teaching, clinical expertise, contributions to organ donation, and medical humanism.

I am a board-certified pediatric pulmonologist and sleep medicine specialist, with extensive experience in cystic fibrosis, asthma, and global health. My deep passion for correcting health disparities globally and in populations affected by asthma and cystic fibrosis regionally is strongly rooted in my upbringing. My father was a New York-trained pediatrician, and a supportive and motivating role model who shaped my life-changing commitment to community service. As a result, following medical training, pediatric specialty training, and pediatric pulmonary subspecialty training in the United States, I was committed to serve the underserved from afar. I have had the privilege of working with the pediatric pulmonary team at Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC) since 2000. My early years at CUIMC were influenced by Professor Robert (Bob) Mellins until his passing in 2012. While working in Stamford Hospital in Stamford, Connecticut during the last year of my pulmonary fellowship, I became acutely aware of the underserved needs of a sick pediatric population in southern Connecticut that, for various reasons, did not have access to care. I established a pulmonary practice in this region and became engaged in program development in three main areas: cystic fibrosis, asthma and global health. I also established a cystic fibrosis care clinic in Stamford Hospital, which led to my current position as the director of the Sue and John L. Weinberg Cystic Fibrosis Center at Columbia. In addition to my clinical practice, I have been involved in research in asthma, RSV bronchiolitis, and cystic fibrosis. In recent years, grants from the CF Foundation and CF Foundation’s therapeutic and development network have enabled me to focus my research on cystic fibrosis.