Peter L. Abt MD

I work as a family physician in Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health’s Care Connections program. This practice serves patients with complex health and social needs by engaging them in high-intensity, transitional primary care coordinated by an inter-professional team of patient care navigators, nurses, clinicians, pharmacists, social workers, chaplains, and clinical support specialists. I joined this team in 2014 after a year-long fellowship focused on healthcare system redesign around the needs of high-utilizing patients with the Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers and the Crozer-Keystone Family Medicine Residency. Prior to the fellowship, I worked for seven years as a front-line family doctor with Esperanza Health Center, a faith-based community health center serving the predominately Latino population of North Philadelphia. I am enthusiastic about the mission of Care Connections and excited to participate with a team working on innovative ways that medical care can support health and wellness for all patients, particularly those with complex conditions.

I am a cardiac surgeon having graduated from University of Pittsburgh Medical School and completed both general surgery and cardiothoracic surgery training at the University of Pennsylvania. To date, I have performed approximately 2,500 cardiac procedures, of which over 700-800 involved heart valve and aortic surgeries. I regularly perform surgery at Penn Medicine Lancaster General Hospital. I believe my greatest strength is being able to meet patients, learn about their story, help them to better understand their disease process, and develop and excecute a bespoke surgical plan. In doing so, we can–as a patient & provider team–develop a treatment plan that best suits their needs and goals. Because I perform a wide range of adult cardiac surgeries and procedures, we have a large “toolbox” of options from which to choose – instead of attempting to force the same technique to every individual. This allows us to create a very individualized plan of care that can range anywhere from minimally invasive approaches all the way to incredibly complex, multifaceted surgical procedures. Every patient is unique and poses their own concerns and challenges. Through my training and experience, we are able to not only understand what needs to be done, but how best to do it and when.