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Avroy A. Fanaroff, MD, FRCPE, FRCPCH (1942-)

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Avroy A. Fanaroff, MD, FRCPE, FRCPCH (1942-)

Pioneer of Neonatal Outcomes Research and Education

Avroy Fanaroff was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa and attended high school in Johannesburg. He completed his medical degree at the University of the Witwatersrand and then trained in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics in South Africa and the United Kingdom. Drawn to the emerging field of neonatology, he emigrated to the United States in 1969, did a fellowship in Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine, and received a Ford Foundation Fellowship in Reproductive Biology at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.

He had arrived at exactly the right time and place. Marshall Klaus was at Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital building one of the country’s first dedicated neonatal programs, and Fanaroff became his protégé and closest collaborator. One of the key areas Fanaroff pioneered was the treatment of babies with hyaline membrane disease. He developed an easy way of applying continuous positive airway pressure, and the first time CPAP was applied to a patient, the results were dramatic — color improved and breathing became non-labored. He was also instrumental in introducing surfactant replacement therapy, which reduced fatalities from neonatal lung disease.

Fanaroff was also a champion of family involvement from the very beginning of a baby’s life. Before 1970, some 70% of hospital units did not allow family members to visit newborns for fear of infection. He showed that when parents did not visit regularly, their babies had a greater chance of failing to thrive. Working alongside Klaus and John Kennell, he helped open NICUs to parents and families at a time when most units kept them firmly at a distance.

Together with Klaus, Fanaroff co-authored Care of the High-Risk Neonate, first published in 1973 — the first truly practical neonatal text, compact yet packed with relevant facts, cases, and commentaries, and the key source of information for the generation of neonatologists trained in the 1970s and ensuing decades. The book has been translated into many languages and, now co-edited with his son Jonathan Fanaroff, MD, JD, is currently in its eighth edition (2025).

Fanaroff directed the neonatal division at Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital for over 20 years starting in 1975, building it into a nationally recognized program consistently ranked in the top five in US News & World Report. Under his leadership, Rainbow became a founding member of the NICHD Neonatal Research Network — the multicenter collaborative established in 1986 that transformed neonatology from an anecdote-driven field into one grounded in rigorous evidence. Fanaroff was a lead author on landmark Network publications documenting changes in mortality and morbidity over the field’s first 15 years, tracking the impact of surfactant therapy, antenatal corticosteroids, and improved NICU practices on survival among infants weighing 501–1,500 grams.

His scholarly contributions extended beyond a single institution. Together with Richard Martin, he co-edits Fanaroff and Martin’s Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine, now in its 12th edition — the most comprehensive multidisciplinary neonatal-perinatal text in the field. He was also senior editor of the Yearbook of Neonatal/Perinatal Medicine for 30 years, and co-editor of Neonatology at a Glance with Tom Lissauer. In total he has authored or co-authored over 300 peer-reviewed publications.

Fanaroff received the prestigious Virginia Apgar Award from the American Academy of Pediatrics in 2002, the highest honor in neonatal-perinatal medicine, as well as two AAP education awards. The Neonatal Education Award of the AAP Section on Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine now bears his name. He has received honorary doctorates from the University of the Witwatersrand and the University of Turku (Finland), was elected to an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health in London in 2005, was inducted into the Cleveland Medical Hall of Fame, and was named a Legend in Neonatology.

He served on the Executive Committee of the American Board of Pediatrics as Chair of the sub-board in Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine, on the Board of University Hospitals Health System, and as Chair of the Organization of Neonatal Training Program Directors. He holds the title of Emeritus Eliza Henry Barnes Professor of Neonatology and Emeritus Professor of Pediatrics and Reproductive Biology at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.

Textbooks

Last Updated on 04/01/26