Kristopher J. Abbate, MD, FAAP

Dr. Abbate is a Tucson native and has a passion for serving the communities of the southern Arizona borderlands. He is the founder and medical director of the Youth Care Program and enjoys caring for patients across the lifespan. He emphasizes the care of medically and socially complex young adults within his clinical practice, teaching and research. He works extensively with medical students and residents in the clinic and hospital setting. 

Prior to becoming a physician, Dr. Abbate held a research appointment in the Mailman School of Public Health of Columbia University. There, he helped to develop the Master of Bioethics Program and performed inquiries into the social, medical and personal implications for patients and physicians of the broadening availability of genetic testing, the favorable and unfavorable consequences of the development of internal review boards (IRBs) on human subjects research, and adequacy of interpretation services in obtaining informed consent.

Dr. Abbate is a proud graduate of the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson, where, as a medical student, he worked to incorporate training on bioethics and social determinants of health into the undergraduate medical education curriculum.