Growth Summit 2022: Day 2 Panel Discussion

Bob Murray, MD

Professor of Pediatrics, Pediatric GI & Nutrition
The Ohio State University College of Medicine
Columbus, OH, USA

Dr. Robert Murray has been a leader in the ANHI-sponsored Growth Ambassador Program for several years. He has helped lead discussions around the importance of identifying, assessing and treating children at risk of growth faltering with optimal nutrition for catch-up growth during our annual Growth Summits. You can watch his presentations: Working as a Team to Solve Pediatric Growth Challenges and Leaving as a Growth Ambassador on GrowthLeadershipNetwork.com (password: GrowthLeaders) or on ANHI.org. 

Dr. Murray spent more than 20 years in the field of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition in The Ohio State University School of Medicine. He served as the Pediatric Nutrition Medical Director for Abbott from 2003-2006. For ten years, Dr. Murray was a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Council on School Health, serving as chair in the final four years. He is a board member of Action for Healthy Kids as well as a board member of the Children’s Hunger Alliance, and previously served on the Board of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Foundation. Dr. Murray is a past-President of the Ohio Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Steven Abrams, MD

Professor of Pediatrics 
Dell Medical School 
University of Texas 
Austin, TX, USA

Steven A. Abrams is the Director of the Dell Pediatric Research Institute and a Professor of Pediatrics. He has developed and championed the use of stable isotopes to determine mineral requirements and physiological turnover rates in infants and children. He has also developed mass spectrometric methods and analytical approaches that allow populations throughout the world to obtain critical data needed for food fortification strategies to be effective.

His research has also furthered understanding of the physiological basis for hormonal changes during growth affecting bone formation and turnover using mathematical modeling techniques adapted by his team for infants and small children. He has conducted research studies using mineral isotopes in more than 20 countries and, for 25 years, operated the largest nutritional research lab in the world, analyzing biological samples for mineral isotope enrichment. He has frequently consulted with governments and has been a trainer for the International Atomic Energy Agency in developing the skills of scientists in countries including Pakistan, Egypt, Indonesia, and South Africa on isotopic techniques as applied to human nutrition. 

He has also authored dozens of methodological papers and a textbook relating disease processes to nutrient metabolism. He frequently consults with companies related to product design to incorporate key nutrients, especially calcium and iron, in their products. In 2016, he received the highest award in the pediatric nutritional research community, the Samuel J. Fomon Nutrition Award, for his contributions to helping improve the health of children through the application of mineral stable isotope research. 

Abrams has served as a member of the Committee on Nutrition of the American Academy of Pediatrics and is now chair of that committee. He has published numerous editorials advocating for healthy nutrition and other healthcare needs of children. From 2012-15, he was a member of the Dietary Advisory Committee of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, being the first pediatrician member of that committee in 25 years. That committee advises the U.S. government on all its nutrition programs. He has served as an adviser to international governments on nutrition policy, especially in Peru and Panama, where he has met with government leaders to help develop strategies to fight malnutrition. Abrams routinely interacts with underrepresented minority students in advocating for their role in scientific discovery and has been a mentor to many such students advancing in their scientific careers.

Ola Nilsson, MD, PhD

Associate Professor,
Division of Pediatrics,
Karolinska Institutet
Stockholm, Sweden

Dr Ola Nilsson is a Professor and Senior Consultant at Örebro University and Örebro University Hospital in Sweden. He is also Associate Professor and Consultant Physician in pediatric endocrinology at Astrid Lindgren Children’s Hospital, Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden. Dr Nilsson is an active investigator in the field of growth and skeletal disorders and has lead clinical trials for a number of putative pediatric treatments.