The Yale Interventional Pulmonary team in Yale’s Section of Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine (Yale-PCCSM) employs advanced technologies to diagnose and treat diseases in the chest, such as lung nodules and masses, lymph node enlargement, complex airways, and pleural effusions.
The program, led by Kyle Bramley, MD, assistant professor of medicine (pulmonary), was one of the first interventional pulmonology programs in Connecticut when it was established in 2009. Today it remains the largest interventional pulmonary service in the state.
“Our program was built to support the pulmonary and thoracic surgery services. We collaborate with other providers to quickly deliver the highest quality patient care possible,” said Bramley.
Under Bramley's interim directorship in 2022, Yale New Haven Hospital (YNHH) became Connecticut's first hospital to provide shape-sensing robotic bronchoscopy, enhancing lung cancer diagnosis and staging when combined with endobronchial ultrasound.
“Technology and innovation in the field of interventional pulmonary is growing as we speak. These minimally invasive procedures can benefit many patients who may have lung cancer, pleural effusions, or other mediastinal disease,” Bramley said. “Since we've launched the robotic bronchoscopy program, it has grown at a rate much greater than I think any of us believed. We want to continue to expand it,” he added.
In addition to diagnostic bronchoscopy, Yale’s Interventional Pulmonary Program provides airway stenting, ablative therapy, and advanced pleural procedures.
The team works closely with thoracic surgery, medical oncology, radiation oncology, and other specialties. Yale’s Interventional Pulmonary Program is a part of the Center for Thoracic Cancers in the Thoracic Oncology Program, which cares for more than 40% of lung cancer patients in Connecticut.
"We are very excited with Dr. Bramley’s leadership – with him as the director, and the three other experts, Dr. Debiasi in the interventional pulmonary program, Dr. Thakore in robotic bronchoscopy, and Dr. Morton, the physician assistants and nurses, the support from YNHH and YSM, and the cutting-edge equipment, we have all the necessary components for a prime program leadership, team, infrastructure and environment. I’m very excited for us, and for our patients,” said Naftali Kaminski, MD, Boehringer-Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals Professor of Medicine (Pulmonary) and chief of Yale-PCCSM.
Bramley received his medical degree from SUNY Downstate Medical Center College of Medicine. He completed an internal medicine residency at YNHH, and later served as a chief resident in the Department of Internal Medicine. He also completed his pulmonary and critical care medicine fellowship at Yale School of Medicine. He completed a second fellowship in interventional pulmonology at the University of Pennsylvania before joining the Yale-PCCSM faculty in 2015.
The Section of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine is one of the eleven sections within Yale School of Medicine’s Department of Internal Medicine. To learn more about Yale-PCCSM, visit PCCSM's website, or follow them on Facebook and Twitter.