Obituary: John H. Newman, MD

Ivan Robbins, Anna Hemnes

https://doi.org/10.1002/pul2.12388

Obituary

John H. Newman, MD passed away peacefully after a brief illness on February 20, 2024. He was the true triple threat: investigator, educator, and clinician. Dr. Newman was a giant in the field of pulmonary vascular disease and his personal contributions to understanding the genetic underpinnings of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), specifically aberrant bone morphogenetic protein receptor type 2 (BMPR2) signaling, cannot be overstated. Shortly after his death, the first drug targeting BMPR2 signaling was approved by the Food and Drug Administration. However, he would not be comfortable with that degree of personal accolade; Dr. Newman was not one to take credit for his accomplishments, preferring to shine a light on his colleagues. Perhaps because of his humility, it is fitting to highlight a few of his contributions to our field to give thanks to a man who gave so much to us.

Dr. Newman was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1945 and lived an early life immersed in academic medicine. He moved to Nashville when his father was recruited to start a program of clinical physiology and research at Vanderbilt University in 1952. Dr. Newman attended Harvard as an undergraduate and Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons for medical school. He trained at Columbia before moving to Baltimore to be a Senior Assistant Resident with Dr. Victor McCusick at Johns Hopkins. Following residency, he enlisted in the army and was stationed at the last Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) unit in Korea where he met his future wife who was working there as a nurse.

Upon his return, Dr. Newman pursued a fellowship at the University of Colorado in the Cardiovascular Pulmonary Research Laboratory. He worked with pioneers in cardiovascular physiology including Drs. Jack Reeves, Robert Grover, and Ivan McMurtry and co-fellows who went on to become prominent in thefield—Drs. Sharon Rounds, Norbert Voelkel and Ivan Ed Rose. As a fellow, he found his career-long love of the pulmonary circulation.

In 1979 Dr. Newman returned to his roots in Nashville and joined the faculty in the Division of Allergy, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at Vanderbilt University. There his research focused on the response of the pulmonary vasculature to sepsis and hyperoxia. During his nearly 45 years at Vanderbilt, Dr. Newman held numerous leadership positions at Vanderbilt including Interim Department of Medicine Chair, Chair of Medicine at the Nashville Veteran's Affairs hospital, and Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine Fellowship Program Director.

In 1980 Dr. Jim Loyd began his research fellowship in Pulmonary Medicine at Vanderbilt and became one of Dr. Newman's early mentees and a career-long collaborator and life-long friend. A familial association with primary pulmonary hypertension (subsequently termed idiopathic PAH) had previously been reported.1 Their interest was piqued after encountering several families with PAH, and seeing the devastation of this disease with no treatment at the time, Drs. Loyd and Newman began a decades-long pursuit of the genetic cause of heritable PAH (HPAH). Their perseverance, in conjunction with many collaborators, helped to ultimately identify germline mutations in bone morphogenetic receptor 2 (BMPR2) as the underlying cause of most forms of HPAH as well as a substantial minority of cases of IPAH.2-5 Drs. Loyd and Newman went on to define the incomplete penetrance and female predominance in HPAH, and hypothesized that genetic anticipation may be present in families,2 a hypothesis that Dr. Newman himself later disproved after additional information on the epidemiology of HPAH emerged.6

Dr. Newman believed in the power of observation at the bedside to inform scientific inquiry, the results of which could then be used to guide clinical care. As such, the discovery of genetic mutations in HPAH was not only an incredible tool to understand the molecular underpinnings of PAH more broadly but important for the affected families and for the physicians caring for them. In conjunction with his basic research, he also served as the Chair of the Scientific Leadership Council at the Pulmonary Hypertension Association, Codirector of the Cardiovascular Medical Research and Education Fund with Dr. Stuart Rich, and was an ardent supporter and founding member of the Pulmonary Vascular Research Institute.

Later in his career, Dr. Newman used this same approach to understand the genetic basis of Brisket Disease. His last undertaking was as a member of the Undiagnosed Disease Network an endeavor seeking to provide an explanation to, and some cases a treatment for, patients with rare conditions previously undiagnosed.

Completing the “triple threat,” Dr. Newman was a brilliant, caring clinician. As with his research, he was always able to zero in on the key question in even the most difficult cases. The authors will miss his valuable input on their complex cases.

Dr. Newman was a passionate advocate for young people and truly believed the future of medicine would be in even better hands through nurturing the next generation. For those of us so fortunate to work with him, he challenged us to ask important questions, encouraged us on our hard days, edited our writing tirelessly, and always had an open door to discuss the latest data or hypotheses. He offered this mentorship not only to people at his own institution but also to investigators across the world.

There is more to be learned from how he approached life that can be distilled into this brief eulogy, but a few themes came out from comments by those who knew him that are a road map to a life well-lived. We will share them here in the hopes that they may be helpful as the reader considers their own legacy:

1. Dr. Newman cared deeply about the underserved
2. Dr. Newman cherished friendships for a lifetime
3. Dr. Newman was an “illuminator”
4. Dr. Newman felt strongly that there was no such thing as a talk too short. Or a manuscript too succinct.

So with that, we thank you, Dr. Newman, John, Newmie, Newmers, and Numin. You were a powerful influence on our lives and we feel lucky to have learned from you. We will endeavor to carry on your legacy.