Philip Abraham, MD, MHA, is an assistant professor in the Division of Hospital Medicine. Born and raised in the Garden State, he found himself living a hard life having to constantly defend the state of New Jersey and all its greatness once he left to pursue higher education. Fortunately, he found support amongst friends and graduated with a dual degree in Biology and English from Boston College with the initial goals of being a nomad and writing for National Geographic. A volunteer trip during his senior year spring break threw a wrench in his plans however after he worked with children in need of medical care, and he attended Ross University for medical school soon after. He completed his pediatric residency at the University of Kansas in Kansas City and was tickled when his wife, Manju, joined him as a peds intern in his third year. It only took a few months before she surpassed him in every way, and Abraham took on a faculty position at the University of Kansas Medical School as a general pediatrician and director of their urgent care until his wife graduated residency. Together, they moved to WashU to complete her fellowship in critical care, and Abraham joined the division of hospital medicine where he continues to this day.
If you ask him what the best part about his job is, he’ll say it’s working with his colleagues, and he’s constantly inspired and motivated by the hard work and drive from the hospitalist division as well as the rest of the department. Abraham enjoys the patient interaction and medical education on the inpatient floors both at SLCH and at the newborn nursery in Barnes, working on the sedation service and providing care in the emergency rooms in community hospitals, where he also serves as the pediatric hospitalist medical director and vice chair of Pediatrics at the Memorial Hospitals in Belleville and Shiloh. He concurrently obtained a masters in health administration at SLU and found a passion in local advocacy chairing the Tobacco 21 coalition, raising the minimum age to purchase tobacco products from 18 to 21 in both St. Louis City and St. Louis County. Abraham believes that investing in both faculty talent and wellbeing is what ultimately makes an organization grow and achieve the mission they set out to accomplish and joined the Pediatric Office of Faculty Development in 2019 as a co-director. And fortunately, he has still been able to partake in global health opportunities — despite his dreams of writing for Nat Geo being crushed — through work in Heart to Heart International, Heart Care International and Médecins Sans Frontières.
In his free time, Abraham chases after his three young boys (Nathan, Simon and David) and pretends to engage in hobbies such as biking and reading when, in reality, his children consume him in all the good ways. As if his house isn’t loud enough, he also shares it with a 140lb Bernese Mountain Dog (Hans), a golden conure (Mango) and a fish (Toothless). He loves the challenge of traveling to other countries with his kids in tow and breaking out into song and dance trying to relive his college a cappella days while attending live music and concerts that St. Louis offers. Never to shy away from a good meal or a drink, Abraham can also be seen trying out new restaurants and inviting himself over for a home cooked meal. He still makes it back to his Jersey shore on occasion but has since found that boating on the Missouri river brings its own charm to the place he now calls home.