Bio
Dr. Michelle Cao is a board-certified, fellowship-trained pulmonologist, sleep medicine specialist, and intensivist (a doctor who cares for patients in intensive care units) with Stanford Health Care. She is a clinical professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary, Allergy & Critical Care Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine. She completed a fellowship in sleep medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine and a fellowship in pulmonary and critical care medicine at UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine.
Dr. Cao specializes in providing home assisted ventilation (breathing assistance) to people living with chronic respiratory failure, such as those with neuromuscular disease. She has experience helping people with all types of respiratory conditions and sleep-related breathing disorders, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), sleep apnea, and hypoventilation syndromes. Dr. Cao is at the forefront of the latest advances in noninvasive ventilation, and she creates a personalized care plan for each of her patients.
Dr. Cao’s clinical research interests include helping people with chronic respiratory failure adhere to a noninvasive ventilation program. She has also written about the emerging need for a new subspecialty in medicine devoted to caring for people with chronic respiratory failure.
Dr. Cao’s articles have appeared in many peer-reviewed publications, including Annals of the American Thoracic Society, Expert Review of Respiratory Medicine, and Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine. She has authored more than a dozen book chapters on sleep-related breathing disorders and neuromuscular diseases.
Dr. Cao edited An Introduction to Sleep Disorders, which was published by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine in 2019. She has served as a reviewer for several publications, including CHEST Journal, American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, and the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
Dr. Cao has presented her research and shared her expertise at conferences in the United States and around the globe. She has been invited to speak about a range of topics, including the latest advances in home mechanical ventilation and sleep disordered breathing. She has spoken at international conferences for the American Thoracic Society (ATS), the American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST), the Associated Professional Sleep Societies (SLEEP), and many more.
Dr. Cao is a fellow of CHEST and the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM). She is a member of ATS and the California Thoracic Society, where she served as president.
