Dr. Morrell Michael Avram, MD, FASN, MASN

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Get to know Nephrologist Dr. Morrell Michael Avram, who serves patients throughout the State of New York.

Dr. Avram is a renowned nephrologist with over six decades of experience in his field. He is considered a pioneer in organ transplantation and specializes in artificial kidney life-maintenance. 

In his professional experience, he is affiliated with a number of medical centers and hospitals in New York, including Stony Brook Southampton, The Brooklyn Hospital Center, Kings County Hospital Center, NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital, and Mount Sinai St Luke’s Hospital.

The doctor’s acclaimed career in medicine began after he earned his medical degree from the University of Geneva Faculty of Medicine in Switzerland in 1965. After relocating to the United States, he went on to perform his residency in internal medicine at the State University of New York Health Science Center at Brooklyn.

In 1971, Dr. Avram established the Avram Center for Kidney Diseases at Long Island College Hospital. The Center had the distinction of keeping a patient, Essie Rinehart, alive on dialysis for 38 years—longer than any other center in the world. He later became Chief of the Avram Division of Nephrology and was named a Professor of Medicine at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University.

Among his most notable accomplishments, Dr. Avram has written a number of books titled: “I Am the Storm: My Odyssey from the Holocaust to the Frontiers of Medicine” ; “Prevention of Kidney Disease and Long-Term Survival” ; “Management of Comorbidities in Kidney Disease in the 21st Century: Anemia, Bone Disease, Malnutrition, and Inflammation” ; and “Renal Disease Progression and Management: Role of Vasoactive Agents, Cytokines, Lipids and Nutrition.”

A nationally recognized expert in nephrology, he has published over two hundred research papers and four books. He has also attained fellowship status with the American Society of Nephrology (FASN), and has written a highly-cited article in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Nephrology is a specialty of medicine and pediatrics that concerns itself with the kidneys. It is the study of normal kidney function and kidney disease, the preservation of kidney health, and the treatment of kidney disease, from diet and medication to renal replacement therapy. Nephrologists have advanced training in treating kidney disease. They diagnose and treat kidney failure, as well as help patients by prescribing medications, offering special diet advice, and coordinating dialysis care when the time comes. 

On a more personal note, Dr. Avram was born in Bucharest, Romania to a Jewish family and immigrated to America in 1946 to escape the Nazis. He settled in Brooklyn Heights, New York and still lives there with his wife, Maria, with whom he has 5 children and 12 grandchildren. He speaks several languages, including English, Spanish, and French. 

Supporters of higher education and the arts on the East End, the Avram Theater and the adjacent Avram Family Art Gallery at Stony Brook Southampton were named after Dr. Avram and his wife in 1998.

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