Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine

Naftali Kaminski, MD, Section Chief

Jonathan Siner, MD, Clinical Chief

Yale’s Section of Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine (Yale-PCCSM) is a leader in compassionate and effective patient care; cutting-edge research; and rigorous training of future leaders. With over 70 faculty members and five fellowship programs, the section continues its remarkable growth, productivity, and impact.

Research

Research is flourishing at Yale-PCCSM—members have written and co-authored over 180 papers each year during the last four years; secured over $14 million in research funding, including six early-stage R01 awards; and made exciting and influential discoveries.

Yale-PCCSM’s researchers made their marks in nearly every field of respiratory medicine. Jose Gomez Villalobos, MD, and his team applied deep learning methods to study the readmission of asthma and COPD patients. Andrey Zinchuk, MD, MHS, led a study that discovered that a patient’s chronotype—whether they rise early or late—may affect how well they adhere to proper CPAP use—with those who prefer to wake up earlier more likely than late risers to use their devices longer. Farida Ahangari, MD, led a team within the Kaminski lab that designed and tested interventions that inhibit a family of microRNA precursors called miR-33 to improve the metabolic functions of lung macrophages and reverse pulmonary fibrosis. Phillip Joseph, MD, and Danielle Antin-Ozerkis, MD, identified physiological parameters that predict pulmonary hypertension in interstitial lung disease with high sensitivity and specificity.

Snigdha Jain, MD, MHS, evaluated changes in restricting symptoms among adults aged 70 or older during the six-month period following a critical illness. Jain’s mentor, Lauren Ferrante, MD, MHS, is studying the unmet needs [B1] of older adults to promote functional recovery after critical illness. Wonnie Ryu, MD, MPH, and his team discovered that high blood levels of mitochondrial DNA are associated with fatigue in patients with sarcoidosis. Through her research, Kathleen Akgün, MD, found that persons living with HIV on antiretroviral therapy experience higher rates of delirium when they use alcohol together with neurocognitively active medications compared with uninfected patients.

Geoffrey Chupp, MD, found that while individuals with COPD were at a higher risk of severe COVID-19 during the first two waves of the pandemic, those with asthma had better health outcomes than the general population. Meanwhile, Xiting Yan, PhD, developed a new method for identifying genes that change in single-cell RNA sequencing data; and Min-Jong Kang, MD, PhD, MPH, discovered that programmed death-1 homolog (PD-1H) is a novel immune regulator of pulmonary fibrosis.

To see all papers published by Yale-PCCSM members this year, go to https://medicine.yale.edu/internal-medicine/pulmonary/research/publications.

Fellowship and Training

The section trains outstanding physicians and non-MD researchers to be leaders in academic pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine. With the addition of a new fellowship in pulmonary vascular disease, Yale-PCCSM had 31 fellows in 2023: 20 in pulmonary and critical care medicine; five in critical care medicine; four in sleep medicine; one in interventional pulmonary; and one in pulmonary vascular disease. Four researchers who completed their postdoctoral training secured tenure-track faculty positions in basic science departments, which demonstrates the rigor, productivity, and success of research training at Yale-PCCSM.

Clinical Care

Yale-PCCSM continues to provide outstanding innovative care. The medical intensive care units continue to upgrade the quality as well as the safety of care. The interventional pulmonary team at Yale-PCCSM was the first in Connecticut to perform a robotic-assisted bronchoscopy with novel shape-sensing technology that allows team members to visualize and biopsy remote parts of the lung which were previously inaccessible. The team performed 193 procedures in the program’s first year. This team also offers endobronchial valve treatment and many other procedures for patients with COPD. The pulmonary vascular disease program continued to expand; and in collaboration with specialists in cardiothoracic surgery and cardiology, its members offered novel interventions for patients with pulmonary vascular disease, including pulmonary thromboendarterectomy. These clinicians were recently the first in Connecticut to perform balloon pulmonary angioplasty.

Yale-PCCSM outpatient services continue to expand. The Winchester Center for Lung Disease, with locations in North Haven and New Haven, tripled its capacity to treat patients. This multidisciplinary program provides access to some of the best physicians in the nation from every subdiscipline of respiratory medicine, as well as support services from respiratory therapists, physical therapists, pharmacists, and social workers, among others.

New Faculty

Eight new faculty members were recruited to enhance and expand the Yale-PCCSM outpatient and lung disease programs. They are:

• Giuliana Cerro Chiang, MD, MSc
• Genta Ishikawa, MD, MPH
• Shannon Kay, MD
• Kathleen McAvoy, MD
• Divya Menon, MD
• Hannah Oakland, MD
• Parvati Singh, MD
• Fatima Zeba, MD.

Honors and Awards

Farida Ahangari, MD, received a Blavatnik Award from a program that honors young scientists in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Israel.

Vivian Asare, MD, was awarded an American Academy of Sleep Medicine Foundation Community Sleep Health grant.

Clemente Britto-Leon, MD, received the Carol B. Basbaum Award from the Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology Assembly of the American Thoracic Society (ATS).

Lauren Ferrante, MD, MHS, received the Jo Rae Wright Award for Outstanding Science from the American Thoracic Society.

Kathleen McAvoy, MD, was awarded top abstract recognition by the ATS.

Margaret Pisani, MD, MPH, was selected by the American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST) to give the Roger C. Bone Memorial Lecture in Critical Care.

Lynn Tanoue, MD, MBA, was chosen by CHEST to give the Richard S. Irwin, MD, Master FCCP Honor Lecture.

Christine Won, MD, MSc, was elected president of the Society of Anesthesia and Sleep Medicine (SASM).

Andrey Zinchuk, MD, MHS, received a Distinguished Service Award from the New Haven County Medical Association.