November 30, 2023

Please join the PACCM Division in welcoming Ankur Sinha as our incoming Interventional Pulmonology fellow! Ankur completed his IM residency and PCCM fellowship at Maimonides Medical Center in New York City. He was recognized as an exceptional clinician, and while in his chief year he was granted emergency attending privileges by his institution’s Chair of Medicine to help staff the hospital’s MICU and ECMO services at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since 2021 Ankur has worked as an attending physician at Parkview Regional Medical Center in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and he was the recipient of his IM residency program’s “Outstanding Teaching Attending Award” for the 2022-2023 academic year. Ankur also helped establish – and currently heads – his hospital’s bronchoscopic lung volume reduction and bedside tracheostomy programs. 

Ankur comes to us with an already-impressive repertoire of advanced bronchoscopic skills, as well as an outstanding portfolio of peer-reviewed research and review articles spanning a variety of topics in critical care and bronchoscopy. We look forward to bringing Ankur onto our team in July 2024, and we’re confident he’ll carry on Pranjal and Eric’s traditions of excellent patient care, fellow-education, and scholarship. 

Happy Match Day! 

November 15, 2023

We are delighted to announce that Dr. Jyothi Tirumalasetty will be joining the PACCM division as a Clinical Assistant Professor and will now be practicing at the Atherton Allergy, Asthma, & Immunodeficiency Clinic.

Jyothi is originally from Pennsylvania and obtained her undergraduate degree in Biology at the University of Michigan and her medical degree at Drexel University in Philadelphia. After completing both her internal medicine residency and Allergy/Immunology fellowship training at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, she joined the faculty at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where she was Clinical Director for the Center for Lung Health and Allergy Clinic Chief at the VA Chicago. While in Chicago, she worked with medically underserved patients, many with severe, uncontrolled asthma. She then moved to the West Coast where she joined the allergy faculty at UCLA and helped to open the Downtown LA Allergy Clinic. She was initially recruited to Stanford to work at the Sean N. Parker Center but has recently resigned, and we are very fortunate to have recruited her to join our adult allergy faculty group. She has a particular interest in severe asthma, health equity in food allergy, digital health, and sustainability in medicine. She lives in Menlo Park with her 3-year-old goldendoodle Roscoe. 

Please join us in welcoming Jyothi to the PACCM family!

November 6, 2023

A big congratulations to Instructor Adam Andruska, MD for winning the PHA Innovation Research Award!

His research centers on how T-cell vascular signaling may serve as a therapeutic target in PAH.  Reviewers lauded Adam for 'outstanding science and (a) beautifully presented proposal'. Adam's science is guided by mentor Edda Spiekerkoetter, with support from collaborators with Mark Krasnow and Maya Kumar. Adam receives this grant on the heels of already winning the Parker B. Francis Award last year.

On a personal note, Arthur Sung and I have noted what a great citizen Adam has been in the division, doing this great science while providing tremendous assistance to the division in the Tri-Valley ICU - all while helping his wife to raise young children to boot. We are incredibly grateful to Adam for his clinical service to PACCM even as he pursues his science diligently in the laboratory.

Please congratulate Adam when you see him!

October 11, 2023

The PACCM division is happy to announce our first successful Stanford Reception at the CHEST conference this year in Hawaii, which will become an annual event.  We have growing leadership at CHEST with faculty and fellows chairing networks, leading education sessions and presenting.   Highlights of this work include leadership by Drs. Michelle Cao and Deb Levine, as Network Chairs (Home Mechanical Ventilation and Diffuse Lung Disease and Transplant), just to name a few.   We also had many faculty and fellows presenting, teaching, and moderating numerous sessions.

CHEST is a great organization to get involved on the national level in the advancement of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine.  We are proud of our division's growing presence at CHEST!

September 5, 2023

The PACCM division is thrilled to announce four new PACCM faculty members: Drs. Ngoc Tran, Kirat Gill, Pranjal Patel, and Dr. Ana Pacheco-Navarro.

Dr. Ngoc Tran will be joining the PACCM division as Clinical Assistant Professor in the Allergy, Asthma, & Immunodeficiency Program and practicing at the Atherton clinic. Ngoc is a Bay Area native who completed her undergraduate degree in Human Biology at the University of California at San Diego. She then conducted basic science research and worked as a lab manager for a few years, before receiving her medical degree at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York. Afterwards, she returned to the Bay Area to complete her Pediatrics residency training at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital of Oakland and her Allergy and Immunology fellowship at Stanford.  She is particularly interested in the relationship between race/ethnicity and health care disparities in the management of food allergies and other allergic diseases. She lives in the South Bay with her husband, Nathan, who is a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Department of Bioengineering at Stanford. We are thrilled to have recruited Ngoc to join our faculty group.

Dr. Kirat Gill joins PACCM from the division of sleep medicine, Department of Psychiatry, where she has been faculty since 2020. She was recently promoted to Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine and is boarded in internal medicine, pulmonary medicine, critical care and sleep medicine. She will be practicing pulmonary medicine at our Palo Alto and Emeryville sites and will be joining Dr. Michelle Cao in expanding the home assisted ventilation program. She will spend dedicated time to maintain our collaboration with Sleep Medicine and ENT-Sleep Surgery to continue to lead the INSPIRE clinic that manages patients undergoing neurostimulation. Furthermore, she will be a core ICU faculty at Tri-Valley, Pleasanton. She will also be attending the fellow's clinic and consult service in Palo Alto. Dr. Gill completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Missouri and obtained her medical degree from St. George's University School of Medicine. After her internal medicine residency at St Joseph's Hospital in Phoeniz, AZ as part of Creighton University school of medicine, she completed her PCCM training at University of California, San Francisco at Fresno and to Stanford in 2019 for Sleep Medicine training. She also obtained a Master of Public Health Degree at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Gill is very involved with the education and diversity missions at Stanford and collaborates with both CHEST and ATS.

Dr. Pranjal Patel will be joining the Interventional Pulmonology group as a Clinical Assistant Professor.  Pranjal is well-known to our division as he was our inaugural and stellar IP fellow.  He will be mainly based out of Palo Alto with responsibilities at South Bay Cancer Center and ValleyCare.  As an integral member of the Interventional Pulmonology group, Pranjal will be a rotating member of our core services including advanced & therapeutic bronchoscopy, robotic CBCT-guided lung biopsies, and pleural disease procedures.  As a fellow, Pranjal was well-known for his passionate teaching style, and we are proud to have him join the faculty to provide this asset to our current and future fellows.

Pranjal completed medical school from Saint George’s University in Grenada, Internal Medicine residency at Santa Clara Kaiser, and PCCM fellowship at Loma Linda University.  He completed his Interventional Pulmonology fellowship here at Stanford in 2023.  He is fluent in Spanish, Hindi, and Gujarati.

Dr. Ana Pacheco-Navarro is joining our faculty as a clinical scholar.  Ana is well known to our group as an outstanding recent graduate of our PCCM fellowship.  She graduated with a BA in Biology from Williams and then earned a master's in education while serving as a Teach for America science teacher in NYC.  She then completed her MD at Cornell and her IM residency at MGH before moving to Stanford for PCCM fellowship, where she also completed a second master's degree in epidemiology and clinical research at Stanford.  Ana's major research focus is on studying the effects of Auto-antibody formation in COVID-19 and critical illness on both short and long-term outcomes with her mentors Dr. Angela Rogers and PJ Utz (from rheumatology).  She is passionate about both ICU and pulmonary medicine.  Her clinical time will be spent at Valley Care ICU and as an attending in Stanford fellows' clinic and pulmonary consult services.  She is also a member of the critical care diversity council, where she has spearheaded several community engagement projects focused on mentoring youths from backgrounds under-represented in science in medicine.

Please welcome our new faculty when you see them!

August 30, 2023

A big congratulations to Dr. Edda Spiekerkoetter and her scientific colleagues for their recent awards! Edda was recently awarded a $2.8M NIH/NHBLI grant focused on the understanding and targeting molecular and cellular events responsible for pulmonary arteriovenous malformation development, growth and regression.   Co-Investigators are members of the interdisciplinary Stanford Hereditary Hemorrhagic Telangiectasia (HHT) Center of Excellence that was founded in 2019 with Serena Tan, MD (Assistant Professor, Pathology), Joyce Teng, MD (Professor, Pediatric Dermatology), Jayakar Nayak, MD, PhD (Associate Professor Otolaryngology), Peter Hwang, MD (Professor and Chief of Rhinology and Endoscopic Skull Base Surgery). 

Additionally, Edda is serving as a Co-Investigator on a new R01 at the University of Colorado evaluating the triggers of right ventricular (RV) fiber re-orientation in response to RV pressure overload and the consequences on inter-ventricular decoupling, working with Dr. Vitaly Kheyfets as PI. Finally, after already being awarded the prestigious Parker B. Francis award earlier this year, Dr. Katharina Schimmel, an Instructor working under Edda, was awarded an American Heart Association (AHA) Career Development Award centered on elucidating the pathogenesis of arteriovenous malformations in HHT.

Congratulations to Edda and her talented team!

August 23, 2023

The PACCM division is pleased to announce that Jennifer Williams MD has accepted the position as Stanford Health Care Tri-Valley Transfer Center Medical Director, effective September 1, 2023. Dr. Williams is a fellowship-trained pulmonologist specializing in pulmonary critical care medicine. She has board certification in Pulmonary Medicine, Critical Care Medicine, and Internal Medicine. She is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary, Allergy & Critical Care Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine. Dr. Williams has been an integral member of the SHC Tri-Valley medical staff and has been active in our ICU since 2021.

As the Transfer Center Medical Director, Dr. Williams will support the process for transfers into SHC-TV from outside institutions and to and from SHC Palo Alto. 

Dr. William’s work is exemplary of the growing leadership and commitment of the PACCM division at SHC-TriValley.  Please join us in congratulating Dr. Williams and supporting her in this important position.

August 10, 2023

Congratulations to Dr. Peter Kao who was recently honored with the Oscar Salvatierra Award for Exceptional Service to Stanford Medical Students and the School of Medicine. Dr. Salvatierra was a surgeon in the Division of Abdominal Transplantation and renowned for his work drafting the National Organ Transplant Act of 1984. Peter is frequently the recipient of high praise from undergraduates, medical students, and other trainees for his clear and informed teaching style. He also gives of his time providing counsel for pre-med advising. Please congratulate Peter when you see him!

August 1, 2023

The PACCM Division and Colleagues would like to announce that Angela Rogers is the contact PI for a new multi-PI R01 called "Elucidating the immunology of autoantibody formation and function in COVID-19", a $3.6M 5-year grant from NIH/NIAID. This effort represents Stanford's Team Science approach, with PIs PJ Utz and Eric Meffre from rheumatology, and Taia Wang from the Institute of Immunity, Transplantation, and Infection and the division of ID.   Dr. Ana Pacheco-Navarro from PACCM will lead clinical outcomes studies for the grant.  This grant was made possible because of the samples collected from Stanford's outstanding COVID-19 Biobank, a Stanford-wide resource which banked plasma and cells from the earliest days of the pandemic, with leadership and investment from colleagues across the school of medicine, including Catherine Blish (ID), Andra Blomkalns and Sam Yang (ED), Ruth O'Hara, Dean Minor and many CRC's and CTRU staff.

August 1, 2023

Acknowledging - always - the capricious nature of ranking systems, let's keep celebrating when the system is working in our favor. We deserve it!

We have risen from our #11 position last year to #7 this year in USNWR Annual Hospital Rankings, just released today.

Our ongoing ascent up the national rankings is a reflection of the rising level of our service as well as our reputation. We are an amazing team! Congrats to Joe Shrager, Chief, Stanford Division of Thoracic Surgery for leading his outstanding group - we are honored to partner with his talented surgeons. For a breakdown of the score, please see https://health.usnews.com/best-hospitals/area/ca/stanford-hospital-and-clinics-6932330/pulmonology

Here are the Pulmonology and Lung Surgery USNWR Rankings for 2023-24.
1. Mayo Clinic
2. Cedars-Sinai
3. NYU
4. UCLA
5. Penn
6. National Jewish-University of Colorado
7. Stanford
8. UCSF
9. UCSD
10. North Shore University
11. Johns Hopkins
12. Mt. Sinai
13. Cleveland Clinic
14. NY-Presbyterian Hospital-Columbia and Cornell
15. Houston-Methodist
16. UTSW
17. MGH
18. Northwestern (Chicago)
19. Michigan
20. Rush
21. Mayo Clinic-Phoenix
22. Lenox Hill
23. Barnes-Jewish (WashU)
24. Hackensack
25. Yale
26. Beaumont-Royal Oak
27. UC Davis
28. Duke
28. Long Island Jewish
30. University of Chicago
30. Kansas
32. Vanderbilt
33. Baylor
34. Mayo Clinic-Jacksonville
35. Pittsburgh
36. USC
37. Ohio State
38. Huntington Hospital
39. Advocate Christ
40. Jefferson
41. Brigham and Women's
42. Loma Linda
43. Florida (Gainesville)
44. Kaiser Anaheim
45. Morristown
46. Advocate Lutheran
47. John Muir (Walnut Creek)
48. St. Francis
49. Northwestern (Lake Forest)
50. Queen's (Honolulu)
 

July 28, 2023

Drs. David Cornfield, Mark Nicolls and Angela Rogers, directors of the National Institutes of Health funded Stanford Pulmonary Biology Training Program, are delighted to announce that Jeff Ni, M.D. and Ian Stancil, PhD will be joining the program. Dr. Ni, a fellow in Pediatric Pulmonology will be joining the training program and working under the guidance of Maya Kumar, PhD. Dr. Ni came to Stanford after an undergraduate degree at Washington University in St. Louis, a medical degree from Loyola University in Chicago and completing training in Pediatrics at the University of Chicago. Jeff chose to join us at Stanford for fellowship training. Ian Stancil, PhD is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine and working with Tushar Desai, M.D. Dr Stancil joined the Desai laboratory after receiving an undergraduate and doctoral degrees from North Carolina State University. We are excited to welcome Drs. Ni and Stancil into the Pulmonary Biology training program. 

The addition of Drs. Ni and Stancil further enhances and strengthens our community of invested, intellectually engaged, discovery-driven pulmonary physician-scientists.  The training grant, which to this point has provided funding and a training experience for 18 people over the past 8 years, has played a central role in fostering the growth and development of the community.

Finally, additional congratulations to Dr. Dongeon Kim who has formal immunology training and received his PhD from the Korea Advanced Institute Of Science and Technology. Dr. Kim joined the Nicolls' laboratory several years ago and was just awarded the Vascular T32 Fellowship housed in the Cardiovascular Institute (CVI),and he is similarly working on a pulmonary biology project.

We are delighted to welcome these new scholars and their mentors into the Stanford Pulmonary Biology Training community! 

July 27, 2023

The PACCM Division is backlogged with great announcements; among the most exciting are coming from Tushar Desai's group. First, Tushar was awarded a $2.7M NIH R01 grant to study mechanisms of repair in acute lung injury. Dr. Nicholas Juul has a first-author paper published in Nature last week entitled "Kras(G12D) drives lepidic adenocarcinoma through stem-cell reprogramming”. The work is a collaboration with Joe Shrager and his group in Thoracic Surgery and is expected to be highly impactful in the field. Nick also received a Stanford Cancer Institute grant (2023 Fellowship Award).  Dr. Matt McCarra received a grant from the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation (2023 Pulmonary Fibrosis Scholars Program); Matt is also a Chan Zuckerberg (CZ) Biohub Physician-Scientist Fellow. 

July 12, 2023

2022 PACCM Teaching Award

Each year we ask our fellows to nominate an eligible faculty member they feel is most deserving of the Teaching Award for important contributions to their fellowship education. We are excited to announce that our 2022 PACCM Teaching Award Winner is Dr. William Auyeung! William will be awarded $5,000 and honored with other Divisional winners in the DOM. This is an impressive achievement, especially given that William is a newer faculty member in our division. Since his start in July of 2021, trainees have been praising his excellent teaching style and dedication on their rotations at the VA.

William completed his undergraduate degree here at Stanford University, before heading to UC San Diego for medical school. After finishing his residency in Internal Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, William returned to Stanford for his fellowships in Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine and Sleep Medicine. After his fellowship training, William became a physician at The Permanente Medical Group for two years before rejoining us as a member of the VA PCCM team.

The 2022 Award Ceremony, at Medical Grand Rounds, will take place at 8am on Wednesday, 8/16/23, in Berg Hall (Li Ka Shing Center). Our own Pedram Fatehi, MD will serve as Award Presenter. You can join either in-person or online in congratulating our department awardees on this well-deserved recognition!

May 2, 2023

The Stanford DOM recently announced Drs. Kristina Kudelko and Pedram Fatehi were given important new leadership roles. The PACCM division is so proud of them both for achieving the distinction of these roles. Here is the announcement from the DOM.

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"Kristina Kudelko, MD has accepted the position of Associate Chair – Academic Affairs/CE in the Department of Medicine effective May 1, 2023. As our clinician educator faculty line has grown in numbers and complexity, we believe it is important to dedicate resources and provide support to their growth, advancement, and promotion and we are excited to welcome Dr. Kudelko to this new leadership position. She will work closely with Sean Wu, MD, PhD, and Andy Hoffman, MD, and the team in Faculty Affairs.  Kudelko is a clinical professor of pulmonary, allergy and critical care medicine. She serves as an attending on the pulmonary hypertension (PH) service and in the PH clinic. She is also a well-regarded teacher and clinical researcher.

Since 2020, Kudelko has served as co-chair of the Clinical Educator Advisory Council in the Department of Medicine where she has guided several ideas to implementation, including a new onboarding web site, development of a standardized professional development allowance for CEs, and implementation of a pilot research grant program. She is looking forward to sharing her experiences moving through the ranks at Stanford and providing guidance and support to her faculty colleagues.

Kudelko earned her BS in biology from Yale, and her MD from the University of Pennsylvania. She completed her residency in internal medicine and her fellowship in pulmonary and critical care at New York Presbyterian Hospital/Cornell and completed a clinical fellowship in pulmonary vascular disease in the Wall Center at Stanford. She joined the faculty in 2011.

Pedram Fatehi, MD, MPH has accepted the position of Vice Chair – Education in the Department of Medicine, effective May 1, 2023. Fatehi is a clinical associate professor of nephrology and, by courtesy, of pulmonary, allergy and critical care medicine. He is board certified in both nephrology and critical care and has engaged in significant teaching across both specialties. As a faculty member at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) prior to joining Stanford, he lectured large group classes and led small group sessions for preclinical medical students in physiology, pharmacology, and clinical reasoning while participating in the Teach for UCSF Certificate Program. After moving to Stanford in 2014, Fatehi began lecturing for preclinical medical students and completed the E4C Associates Program workshop curriculum. Eight years later, he continues to lecture students in their first two years of medical school, in both the cardiovascular and renal blocks.

Fatehi has completed additional educational training via courses and workshops offered at the Faculty Development Center for Medical Teachers and on the undergraduate campus at the Course Design Institute and the Center for Teaching and Learning. As a prior fellowship program director, and as current director of education in nephrology, Fatehi has been integral in all aspects of teaching, mentoring, and leading nephrology trainees. A frequent winner of the Nephrology Teaching Award, he has also been deeply involved in teaching in the ICU through his joint appointment with pulmonary, where he has been supervising bedside education for clerks (MS4s), residents, and fellows from the departments of medicine, anesthesia, emergency medicine, and neurology. As vice chair, Fatehi will expand and create opportunities for teaching across our faculty. He is inspired to create more “team teaching” possibilities.

Fatehi earned his BA from the University of Texas at Austin, his MPH from the Yale School of Public Health, and his MD from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. He completed his internship, residency, and fellowship in nephrology at New York Presbyterian/Columbia. He completed his critical care medicine fellowship at UCSF, where he also served on the faculty for several years before joining Stanford."

April 12, 2023

Congratulations to Dr. Solmaz Ehteshami-Afshar, second year PCCM fellow, on receiving the 2023-2024 American Thoracic Society (ATS) Academic Sleep Pulmonary Integrated Research/Clinical Fellowship (ASPIRE).  

The ASPIRE fellowship is a prestigious training program designed to develop the next generation of pulmonary & sleep physician-scientists and leaders. The program includes a collaboration between ATS and several outstanding institutions that have strong Pulmonary/Critical Care/Sleep training programs (University of Pennsylvania, University of Pittsburgh, Harvard University, Case Western Reserve University, and UC San Diego Health System).  Solmaz will be conducting research on noninvasive ventilation variables and outcomes in patients with ALS.  She will be co-mentored by Dr. Mark Nicolls, Dr. Emmanuel Mignot (Division of Sleep Medicine), and Dr. Michelle Cao.  We greatly appreciate the leadership of Drs. Michelle Cao and Gaurav Singh - for their guidance and advocacy of sleep-oriented physicians within our division. Please congratulate Solmaz when you see her!

March 22, 2023

A worldwide team of medical scientists will convene April 13-14 on Stanford campus to apply lessons learned from the Aminorex epidemic during a two-day Drug-induced Pulmonary Hypertension Symposium. Featuring Roham Zamanian.

Drug-induced Pulmonary Hypertension Symposium

March 8, 2023

A big congratulations to Katharina Schimmel, PhD for being awarded a prestigious Parker B. Francis Fellowship for her application “Pulmonary Arteriovenous Malformations in Hereditary Hemorrhagic Telangiectasia (HHT).

Katharina is mentored by our own Edda Spiekerkoetter and will be studying the role of somatic mutations as well as second pathogenic rare germline variants of HHT and non-HHT genes that increase the risk of AVM development in the lung and brain. 

Katharina will be co-mentored by Mark Nicolls and Alokkumar Jha (Weill Cornell) and her collaborators are Evan Brittain (Vanderbilt), Karin Tran-Lundmark (Lund University, Sweden), and Gary Steinberg (Stanford).

January 11, 2023

We are delighted to announce that Dr. Alicia Mirza is joining PACCM this month as the Associate Program Director of Cystic Fibrosis. She is returning after two years away at Kaiser Permanente Oakland Medical Center as a PCCM attending. Many of you are familiar with Alicia's accomplishments and strengths during her PCCM fellowship, including her role as chief fellow year at Stanford. We look forward to benefitting from her leadership skills working with Dr. Paul Mohabir, Director of CF, and all the staff to advance the program missions.

Alicia is board-certified in both adult and pediatric medicine, completing her IM and Peds residency at UCLA in 2017. She joined Stanford PCCM fellowship and graduated in 2020. She was then recruited to Kaiser Permanente and served with distinction during the early and ongoing phases of the Pandemic. The PACCM leadership remained in close contact with Alicia during the past two years and are grateful to recruit her back to the Farm.  

Along with her leadership role in CF, she will also work with our pediatric pulmonary colleagues to improve the clinical management of pediatric patients transitioning to adulthood. Alicia also has particular interests to care for patients with cerebral palsy, among other conditions. Alicia will work collaboratively with the home ventilation program led by Dr. Michelle Cao.  She will spend her time in Palo Alto, as well as in the East Bay with the expansion of Emeryville Outpatient Center, and the expanding ValleyCare pulmonary and ICU group.

We also want to take this opportunity to thank Dr. Laveena Chhatwanni for her work and leadership as the APD of the CF over the years, as she will also be advancing to her roles in the lung transplant program working with Dr. Gundeep Dhillon and all the members of the team.   

January 11, 2023

January 11, 2023

Register today - Cone Beam CT in Advanced Bronchosopy

December 5, 2022

In mid-November, we carried out the first-ever pulmonary thromboendarterectomy (PTE) surgery in Stanford Health Care history for a patient with chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH).  The patient recovered well and was successfully discharged home in time to spend Thanksgiving with family.  Most importantly, our patient’s exercise tolerance and oxygen dependence substantially improved at discharge.

Over the past year, we have assembled a multidisciplinary team across Pulmonary Hypertension, Cardiovascular Surgery, Cardiovascular Anesthesiology, Interventional Cardiology, and Radiology programs to evaluate and treat patients with CTEPH.  We have worked diligently to put in place protocols and practice patterns to create a successful PTE surgery program.  So far, we have evaluated more than a dozen patients with CTEPH and selected the best surgical candidates.  Currently, we are the only program in Northern California to offer PTE Surgery.  As an offshoot of this program, we have already performed pulmonary artery reconstruction surgeries on three patients with severe PAH and PA aneurysms and are in the process of establishing a formal Balloon Pulmonary Angioplasty sub-program in collaboration with Interventional Cardiology.  

The Stanford CTEPH team is a truly collaborative effort and is comprised of the faculty shown to the left.

We would also like to acknowledge the hard work of the following team members whose contributions were instrumental in building the program: Rita Lee, Stacey Tullis, Elizabeth Augustine, Thomas Ford, R.J. Cerna, Amber Smith, Aileen Lin, and Juliana Liu. 

Our immediate goals are to work with the SHC community and referring physicians to grow the program, develop new surgical/interventional techniques, and foster a clinical academic research environment. Please do not hesitate to reach out if you would like any more information regarding the CTEPH program or to refer a patient.

October 20, 2022

The DOM Annual Report was just released and features a nice story about some (not all!) of the great women leaders in our division.

Please check it out when you get a chance.

https://medicine2022report.stanford.edu/2022-annual-report/women-take-the-lead-in-pulmonary-critical-care-medicine

October 19, 2022

We are happy to announce that Dr. Roham Zamanian, Medical Director of the Stanford Pulmonary Hypertension Program, will be our Team Science Representative for our Division. Roham is an internationally recognized leader in translational research for pulmonary vascular disease. The DOM is sponsoring this major initiative to foster team science which will reach across divisional boundaries to create impactful group studies and grant proposals. As this initiative builds and starts to take shape, we will be reaching out for your participation in evolving efforts. This will ultimately become a great way for clinician educators to participate in and lead group research efforts. An upcoming Team Science Retreat will help frame the emerging organization and promises to be an exciting launch that should positively impact many of you in the upcoming years. A big congratulations to Roham on his new leadership role!

September 1, 2022

We are happy to announce a major publication and new leadership position for Dr. Angela Rogers.  She has authored a study evaluating the association of a biomarker with clinical outcomes in COVID-19 and has been named the Director of the new Critical Care Medicine Research Program in the Department of Medicine at Stanford.

The paper, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine (Impact Factor: 52), evaluated 2540 subjects at 114 centers in 10 countries. The objective of the study was to determine whether levels of plasma SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid (N) antigen can predict short-term clinical outcomes and identify clinical and viral factors associated with plasma antigen levels in hospitalized patients with SARS-CoV-2. The paper concludes that elevated plasma antigen is highly associated with both severity of pulmonary illness and clinically important patient outcomes. While the simplified concept of COVID pathogenesis suggests it’s the virus that matters early in outpatients and in hospitalized patients what matters is inflammation,  this data supports an important role of ongoing viral replication in a subset of hospitalized patients.  This subset could be enrolled in future anti-viral clinical trials in COVID-19.  Understanding the biologic heterogeneity of critical illness has been the focus of her entire research career. 

This publication arrives at a timely moment for Dr. Rogers. As many of you know, Angela has had important leadership roles in the Division, the Department, the hospital, and at the national level. She is the Associate Program Director for both the PCCM Fellowship and Internal Medicine Residency. She is a clinically active MICU attending and was instrumental in helping lead Stanford's response to the pandemic, heading a Stanford task force that developed guidelines for the care of COVID-19 patients. For her pivotal work and clinical excellence, she was named SHC's Physician of the Year in 2021. More recently, Dr. Rogers was elected Chair of the Allergy, Immunology, and Inflammation for the American Thoracic Society (2022-2023). For years, she has led an NIH-funded translational research group focused on critical care medicine research. In wide-ranging conversations across Departments, we have recognized the need to increase the connectivity of investigators in critical care medicine research. Accordingly, Angela will assume the role of the Director of the DOM Critical Care Medicine Research Program. 

In this role, Dr. Rogers will design, implement, and lead an interdisciplinary team of critical care investigators, helping to direct and lead collaborative Stanford-based and extramural CCM grant proposals. This leadership position dovetails with the DOM's major effort in 2022-23 to build team science among our medicine divisions.  She will also continue in this role to work with outstanding colleagues across other departments in our multidisciplinary ICU. Please congratulate Angela for both her impactful paper and this leadership role in this exciting new research program when you see her.

https://annals.org/aim/article/doi/10.7326/M22-0924

August 29, 2022

A big congratulations to Dr. Anna Arroyo, the Clinical Chief of Allergy at Stanford and Medical Director, Allergy, Asthma, & Immunodeficiency Clinic for winning the 2022 Department of Medicine Chair Diversity Investigator Award.

Her proposal addresses the social determinants of health and asthma outcomes among the Asian-American population. As the recipient of this award, Anna will present her research findings to the Stanford community and to wider audiences including a presentation of her preliminary findings/interim data at a Medicine Grand Rounds in the fall of 2023.  Beyond the award period, as a Department of Medicine Chair Diversity Investigator Fellow, she will be part of the Diversity & Inclusion Research network, a special circle of distinguished researchers making significant contributions to health disparities and health outcomes. 

August 24, 2022

We are delighted to announce that Dr. Joon Chang will be joining the Interventional Pulmonology Program in September 2022. Dr. Chang recently completed his IP training at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, one of the oldest and most preeminent programs in the country. He will be a key member of the program which is thriving under the direction of Dr. Harmeet Bedi; he will work alongside Drs. Brian Shaller, Meghan Ramsey, Arthur, and our wonderful IP Staff.

He completed his undergraduate studies at Johns Hopkins with a degree in Molecular and Cellular Biology and a music minor followed by medical school at UCLA while also serving as the music coordinator of the Acapella group, the GeffeNotes. He went to NYU for internal medicine residency followed by PCCM training at Stanford. He looks forward to continuing clinical research which focuses on airway sampling in infection, pleural disease, and DEI issues in PCCM. 

Stanford has gained national prominence in the IP program which Joon will help build further with cone beam CT navigation and robotic bronchoscopy. Our ability to have access to these state-of-the-art technologies will facilitate top patient care.  The partnership with Dr. Sam Wald (VP of Perioperative and Interventional platforms) and support from the leaders of Cancer and Transplant Destination Services Lines,\ have been tremendously supportive in this process. Joon will also be a key mentor with our new IP fellowship, assisting East Bay efforts, including critical care medicine at ValleyCare Hospital.

August 17, 2022

We are very pleased to welcome Dr. Deborah Levine, Professor of Medicine at the University of Texas at San Antonio, and Dr. Amit Banga, an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern to our Stanford PACCM Division Faculty.

Deb has an international reputation in the fields of lung transplantation and pulmonary hypertension.  Dr. Levine has been instrumental in developing international guidelines for defining, diagnosing, and managing antibody-mediated rejection after lung transplantation. She also studies lung allograft monitoring using novel biomarkers such as donor-derived cell-free DNA, a technique pioneered at Stanford. Additionally, she will be the Director of Outreach for the Lung Transplant Program. Dr. Levine looks forward to developing a strong relationship with our pulmonary hypertension program and The Wall Center. She is an outstanding educator

Amit has an international reputation in the field of lung transplantation. He has been recognized as an outstanding clinician and clinical researcher. Dr. Banga's scholarship focuses on donor optimization and utilization for lung transplants. In addition, he will resume his study of post-lung transplant complications and outcomes. In collaboration with surgical medical directors, Dr. Banga will assist with the development of an advanced lung rescue service. The primary focus will be on the expansion of the VV-ECMO service for lung transplantation. He will also assist with the lung transplantation program’s current efforts to grow outreach clinics in underserved areas of California, Nevada, and Oregon.

As many of you know, the lung transplant program has been exceptionally busy - our attendings have been working their fingers to the bone! The welcome addition of such experienced clinician-scholars will greatly contribute to the strong transplant culture which has been historically strong at Stanford for over 50 years after Norm Shumway performed the first adult human-to-human heart transplant in the United States on January 6, 1968. Later, Stanford cardiothoracic surgeon Dr. Bruce Reitz performed the world’s first successful heart-lung transplant on March 9, 1981,

Our lung transplant program is doing well and is growing. Led by Drs. Gundeep Dhillon (Medical Director) and J.W. MacArthur (Surgical Director), we have an excellent partnership with our CV Surgical colleagues.  Our most recent statistics show that we have the highest observed graft and patient survival outcomes in California and 4^th in the nation among other adult lung transplant programs. Our heart-lung transplant program continues to transplant the highest number of heart-lung transplants in the U.S. (with good outcomes). We greatly appreciate this partnership as well as those of our critical care medicine teams who help care for these patients.

Please welcome Deb and Amit when you see them!

August 16, 2022

A big congratulations to Dr. Vinicio de Jesus Perez for a $3.5M award funding the renewal of his R01 grant evaluating the role that specialized blood vessel cells, known as 'pericytes', in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). 

 Vinicio's team will also study how pericytes in the heart contribute to right ventricular adaptation in response to PAH.   This multi-disciplinary project involves colleagues from Stanford and other institutions in the US, Canada, and Europe.  Their goal is to use this information to guide therapeutic interventions for this frequently lethal disease.

 Please congratulate Vinicio and his team when you see him!

August 8, 2022

The PACCM division is happy to announce that our group was just awarded one of eight NIH Lung Transplant Consortium Center grants in the country; this award will provide five years of funding, with possible renewal. The Stanford group with collaborators will study the impaired vaccination responses of lung transplant recipients. Understanding the deficits of vaccine responses in immunocompromised patients will foster the development of improved vaccine design, adjuvants, and administration protocols. Our Clinical Center status will allow us to participate in one of the most important NIH initiatives for lung transplant research in decades. This award includes a base $2.13M fund to help support basic studies of our Center with our two partner sites at Inova-Fairfax in Maryland and Houston-Methodist in Texas with significantly more funding opportunities anticipated as pilot grants through the consortium are solicited.

Each of the eight Clinical Centers has their own theme and will participate in a national centralized biorepository and a Data Coordination Center. A unique feature of the consortium is the promotion of frontline clinicians and surgeons as members of a national steering committee. Here, Dr. Gundeep Dhillon (Medical Director of the Lung Transplant Program) and Dr. J.W. MacArthur (Surgical Director) will be the Voting Members of the National Steering Committee representing Stanford/Inova/Houston and will help shape the future of lung transplant research in the years ahead. We are thrilled to partner with Professor Bali Pulendran, the Stanford investigator who developed the field of System Vaccinology. Bali will be giving the inaugural Pulmonary Grand Rounds this year on September 9th, 2022.

Other big acknowledgments: our site PIs Drs. Steve Nathan/Shambhu Aryal (Inova-Fairfax) and Howard Huang (Houston-Methodist),  Holden Maecker, Stanford Human Immune Monitoring Center, Hannah Valantine who is supporting team science at Stanford, and finally to our own Amy Tian who was central to the writing and organization of this grant application.

This will be a great opportunity for Stanford investigators to collaborate across medical and surgical disciplines, to submit new pilot grants and to gain access to a national network of highly-phenotyped tissue for science that benefits the lives of transplant patients.

August 1, 2022

A big shout out to Dr. Andrea Jonas for publishing a timely review in the BMJ (British Medical Journal) on vaping. The BMJ is one of the most widely read general medical journals in the world (Impact Factor: 93.33).

 And the full-text pdf link:

https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/378/bmj-2021-065997.full.pdf

July 26, 2022

The U.S. News and World Report rankings were released, and pulmonology and lung surgery continue to rise in the rankings, going from #12 to #11 this year.

We want to acknowledge the phenomenal job that you and our Stanford colleagues in related disciplines are doing.

Our colleagues in Pediatric Pulmonology & Lung Surgery continue to perform as one of the top-ranked groups in the country (#5).

Congratulations to all the fellows, faculty and staff who have worked together to forge such great divisions in PACCM and Thoracic Surgery!

Stanford Health Care ranked #10 (up from #12), as well, so another banner year for SHC.

Here's a list of the ranked pulmonology and lung surgery hospitals for 2022-2023:
#1. Mayo Clinic
#2. National Jewish Health, Denver-University of Colorado
#3. Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
#4. NYU Langone
#5. UCLA
#6. Cleveland Clinic
#7. Johns Hopkins
#8. Penn
#9. UCSF
#10. UC San Diego
#11. Stanford
#11. New York-Presbytarian-Columbia Cornell
#13. Northwestern
#14. North Shore
#14. Mayo Clinic-Phoenix
#16. Mass General
#17. Mount Sinai
#18. Houston Methodist
#18. Vanderbilt
#20. Rush
#21. UT Southwestern
#22. Memorial Sloan Kettering
#22. Michigan
#24. Brigham and Women's
#25. Wash U
#25. USC
#27. UC Davis
#28. Northwestern - Lake Forest
#29. Pitt
#30. Yale
#31. Duke
#32. Kansas
#33. Beaumont
#34. Lenox Hill
#35. Ohio State
#36. John Muir Health - Walnut Creek
#37. Mayo Clinic - Jacksonville
#38. University of Chicago
#38. MD Anderson
#40. Advocate Lutheran
#41. Loma Linda
#41. Long Island Jewish
#43. Oregon Health Sciences (OHSU)
#44. CentraCare-St. Cloud
#45. Huntington
#45. Sharp
#47. Thomas Jefferson
#48. University of Florida - Gainesville
#49. Tampa General
#50. Alabama

July 22, 2022

It is a distinct pleasure to announce that Dr. Raquel Lynn will be joining our PACCM Division as a Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine.  Following her PCCM fellowship,  Raquel was most recently the eBay Fellow in Pulmonary Vascular Diseases.  Raquel will be an active member of our adult pulmonary hypertension (PH) program, participating in on the clinical inpatient service, in the cardiac catheterization laboratory as a procedural attending, and expanding the scope of the PH program to the Stanford Health Care-ValleyCare campus.  She will help Dr. Yon Sung co-direct the newly established Stanford chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH)/pulmonary thromboendarterectomy (PTE) program that will provide a surgical and interventional platform for patients with chronic thromboembolic disease.

Please join us in welcoming Raquel to the PACCM family!

May 20, 2022

The PACCM division wants to share the good news that two of our faculty were elected to leadership roles in ATS:  Vinicio de Jesus Perez was elected chair of the Pulmonary Hypertension Assembly and Angela Rogers was elected chair of Allergy, Immunology, and Inflammation.  In addition to leading their assemblies, in these roles,  both will serve as members of the ATS board of directors for three years.  It's delighful to see Stanford faculty helping lead our society.  Congrats to Angela and Vinicio!

May 12, 2022

We are excited to announce that Drs. Andrew Moore, PCCM fellow in the PACCM division and Dr. Pablo Sanchez, cardiology fellow will be the next physician-scientists to join the T-32 funded, Stanford Pulmonary Biology Training Program. 

With the addition of Drs. Sanchez and Moore, we continue to build our community of invested, intellectually-engaged pulmonary physician-scientists. Dr. Moore will be studying multi-omic endotyping of ARDS and sepsis working under the mentorship of Dr. Purvesh Khatri and Dr. Angela Rogers. Dr. Sanchez will be examining RV dysfunction in ARDS, training with Dr. Angela Rogers and Drs. Euan Ashley and Francois Haddad. We are delighted to welcome these new scholars and their mentors into the Stanford Pulmonary Biology Training community! 

March 14, 2022

We are excited to announce that Dr. Brian Shaller has been voted the 2021 PACCM Teaching Award Winner - a big achievement considering the large faculty size of our division and the considerable number of outstanding educators. Brian will be awarded $5,000 and honored with other Divisional winners in the DOM. Brian is consistently viewed as an educator and clinician par excellence. Trainees are universally impressed by his technical skills, deep knowledge base, and humble bearing.

Brian is originally from NYC and went to medical school at Albert Einstein School of Medicine. He completed both his medicine residency and PCCM fellowship at Stanford.  He pursued interventional pulmonology training at the Cleveland Clinics program and returned as faculty to Stanford in August of 2020. Brian was instrumental in initiating our newly inaugurated Interventional Pulmonology Fellowship Program. We are super proud to have him in our ranks. A big congratulations for this well-deserved honor, Brian!

March 10, 2022

We are very excited to announce that two of our PCCM fellows, Solmaz Afshar and Landy Luna Diaz, have been accepted to the ACGME Advancing Innovation in Residency Education (AIRE) - Sleep Medicine program, sponsored by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM). This pilot initiative was created by ACGME to catalyze innovations in graduate medical education and improve barriers to sleep medicine training. We are thrilled to be able to provide this rare opportunity to our fellows with a strong interest in pursuing sleep medicine as part of their career trajectory.  

In close collaboration with Stanford's world-renowned Division of Sleep Medicine, Solmaz and Landy will complete comprehensive sleep medicine fellowship training along with special focus on pulmonary and sleep disorders within three years of PCCM fellowship. At completion of training both fellows will be eligible for sleep medicine board certification.  Solmaz and Landy will be mentored and supervised by our own faculty programmatic leads Michelle Cao and Gaurav Singh, who are board certified in sleep medicine.  We view this opportunity as a testament to the Division's commitment towards educational opportunities and supporting personalized career pathways for our fellows.  We are grateful and proud of Michelle and Gaurav for organizing this new initiative for Stanford. Please congratulate Solmaz and Landy, our inaugural fellows, when you have the opportunity.

March 10, 2022

A big congratulations to Dr. Vinicio de Jesus Perez and his research team for receiving a $3M NIH R01 grant evaluating the pathogenesis of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). In their original R01, his team confirmed a key role for the Wnt7a/ROR2 signaling pathway in lung angiogenesis and how the loss of this mechanism is a feature of PAH vascular pathology.  

The renewal grant will focus on elucidating the transcriptional and epigenetic mechanisms governing the behavior of diseased endothelial cells with implications for how the right ventricle adapts in this lethal condition. Excellent news and great work, Vinicio and team!

February 11, 2022

It is the PACCM division’s great pleasure to announce that Adam Andruska has been selected as a 2022 Parker B. Francis Fellow for his research under the mentorship of Edda Spiekerkoetter. Adam will be continuing his investigations into the pathogenesis of pulmonary hypertension in Edda’s lab and co-mentored by Maya Kumar.

The PBF is a prestigious honor and award for which Adam is incredibly deserving, and is a testament to his perseverence over the years. We’re very proud of and happy for him.

February 9, 2022

Please consider attending this year's CTS Annual Educational Conference. This is one of the best programs that we have seen for this meeting. With subjects ranging from post-ICU care, modes of ventilation and proning, hands-on sessions with ventilators/oxygen delivery devices/neural triggering for OSA, lung cancer, sleep disorders, climate change/environmental pollution, pandemic career development/wellness, and women in PCCM/Sleep medicine, this program offers something for everyone - and will occur in the lovely Portola Hotel and Spa in Monterey.

We need to call out a few of Stanford's faculty. Our group is becoming increasingly prominent in the California Thoracic Society. First a big congratulations to our very own Drs. Kristina Kudelko and Gaurav Singh who are the Conference Co-Chairs - amazing job, you two. We also have to celebrate Dr. Michelle Cao, the current CTS President. We look forward to attending the conference in person this year.

January 20, 2022

"Newsweek has created international rankings for specialized hospitals and this year added Pulmonology as a category. Stanford did well for this initial outing coming in at number 7!

For the full list of 125 ranked programs, here is the link https://www.newsweek.com/worlds-best-specialized-hospitals-2022/pulmonology"

December 3, 2021

We are absolutely thrilled to announce the results of the IM-CCM fellowship match.  As many of you know, this was the first year IM-CCM as has been in a match, so it was with great excitement we learned of the results today. Here are our new IM-CCM Fellows:

Dr. Matthew Griffin (Yale-New Haven Hospital)
Dr. Nicholas Levin (Univ of Utah)
Dr. Jennifer Lee (Stroger Hospital of Cook County)
Dr. Laura Methvin (Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center)
Dr. Jonathan Hootman (Stanford)
Dr. Adam Zviman (Univ of Maryland)
Dr. Tanuja Yalamarti (Stanford)
Dr. Brady Page (UCSD)
Dr. Daniel Rozenbaum (Cleveland Clinic Foundation)
Dr. Serena Hua (Ohio State Univ)
Dr. Margaret Stevenson (Hartford Hospital)
Dr. Richard Cunningham (Maricopa Medical Center)

December 3, 2021

We are thrilled to welcome the members of our incoming class of PCCM Fellows who will start July 2022:

Dr. Carrie Cao (Stanford )
Dr. Kevin Correa (UCSF)
Dr. Kyle Fahey (Stanford)
Dr. Krystle Leung (Massachusetts General Hospital)
Dr. Achyut Patil (Stanford)
Dr. Joseph Rathkey (Stanford)

We are also delighted to extend a congratulations to our third year PCCM fellows on their matches into interventional pulmonology for the coming year:

Dr. Drew Dunatchik (Cleveland Clinic)
Dr. Darius Filsoof (UCLA)
Dr. Jorge Munoz Pineda (Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center)
 

December 1, 2021

The Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine collaborates with the American Thoracic Society on the “Helping the World to Breathe” initiative
The American Thoracic Society, a global leader in respiratory health, is premiering an inspiring docuseries about the Society’s commitment to advancing global respiratory health through multidisciplinary collaboration, education, and advocacy. “Helping the World to Breathe” draws awareness to innovative, multidisciplinary partnerships and advanced technology to develop treatments for patients with lung disease. The Stanford PACCM division is one partner for this project, and created a video about its focus on diversity and gender equity. Learn more

October 7, 2021

The PACCM division is pleased to announce that Dr. Maya Kasowski received the NIH Director's New Innovator Award (DP2) to develop a novel methodology to study the genetics of allergic disease at the single cell level. 

The New Innovator Award is part of the NIH high risk high reward program. Dr. Kasowski was recruited by Dr. Nadeau to join the Parker Center for Allergy and Asthma Research in July 2020. The goal of her lab is to study the molecular mechanisms by which genetic variation influences the risk of allergy and other complex diseases. She plans to leverage powerful in vitro systems developed by Dr. Kari Nadeau, Director of the Parker Center, to link genetic variation to molecular level traits. Dr. Kasowski completed her MD/PhD training at Yale Medical School, her postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Genetics under Mike Snyder at Stanford, and her residency in clinical pathology at Stanford. Maya is an Assistant Professor of Medicine, Pathology and, by courtesy, Genetics. 

This is a major accomplishment, and we are proud of Maya's fantastic progress since joining our Stanford Faculty.

https://news.stanford.edu/report/2021/10/05/high-risk-high-reward-grants-awarded-three-stanford-researchers/

October 4, 2021

We are delighted to announce that Dr. Jennifer Camacho will be joining the PACCM division as Clinical Assistant Professor and will be practicing at the Atherton Allergy, Asthma, & Immunodeficiency Clinic.

We are very fortunate to have recruited Jennifer from Columbia University Medical Center, where she was an Assistant Clinical Professor in Allergy and Immunology and practicing at the multi-specialty Scarsdale Medical Group.  She is a longtime New York native, as she graduated from Columbia University with a major in History and received her medical degree from Albert Einstein College of Medicine. She then completed her residency training in Internal Medicine at Columbia University Presbyterian Medical Center and fellowship training in Allergy and Immunology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. Jennifer is particularly interested in studying healthcare disparities and health care literacy amongst minority populations with asthma and allergic conditions.  She lives in Redwood City with her husband, David, and young children. We are very excited to have her join our group.

Please join us in welcoming Jennifer to the PACCM family!

September 28, 2021

The PACCM Division wanted you to be aware of the important work that Dr. Nadeau is doing in Switzerland where she is helping to implement the WHO guidelines for air quality across the world by educating health ministers and health care workers on the new standards. Kari is writing reports with international experts on wildfires, on respiratory diseases, and on biomarkers in climate change and health.  These will be used for policy and further guidelines by the WHO.

New WHO air quality guidelines (just released) emphasize the critical need for future research like mixed modeling effects of exposure, spatial variation modeling  (especially places like Africa), monitoring city pollution, and personal exposure analysis to multiple pollutants. Air quality and pulmonary medicine are closely linked, and their study forms an exciting area for impactful research. Here is a link to the story on the new guidelines.

https://www.who.int/news/item/22-09-2021-new-who-global-air-quality-guidelines-aim-to-save-millions-of-lives-from-air-pollution

Kari's work is occurring as Stanford prepares to open the nation's first school focused climate and sustainability (scheduled to open in the Fall of 2022). 

https://sustainabilityinitiative.stanford.edu/

Sustainability Initiative

A 21st century school to address 21st century challenges. Stanford is creating its first new school in more than 70 years in a historic effort to advance scholarship in climate and sustainability and address urgent challenges that threaten the health and wellbeing of people worldwide.

We are proud of the work that Kari and her team are performing in this most important of research arenas.

August 25, 2021

Much news from our Stanford PACCM, VA Palo Alto-based Research Programs, and the Parker Center with new federal grants amounting to over $35M of new Federal Grants as well as our big lab moves into new facilities at Stanford and the VA Palo Alto. This funding and lab relocation is a tremendous testament to the strength of our talented PACCM Faculty and an indicator of the positive direction of Stanford/VA research efforts as we move into the 2020s.

Dr. Edda Spiekerkoetter received $1.7M funding in a new NIH R01 grant to study the molecular and structural mechanisms of right ventricle failure in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). This work focuses on cardiac fibrosis and microvascular pathology and addresses the most important cause of mortality in PAH. The grant was developed from data generated by postdoctoral fellows Mario Boehm and Kenzo Ichimura and PhD graduate student, Melanie Dufva. Drs. Ross Metzger and Sushma Reddy  (both in Pediatric Cardiology, Stanford) and Dr. Vitaly Kheyfets from the University of Colorado serve as co-investigators on the grant.

Dr. Roham Zamanian received $3M funding in a new multi-PI NIH R01 grant working with Steve Kawut (UPENN) and co-investigator Vinicio de Jesus Perez lead a 10-center initiative to evaluate the link between methamphetamine use and PAH in the United States.  The aims of the project to conduct a well-designed prospective case-control study to validate use and quantify characteristics and patterns of methamphetamine use as a risk factor for PAH, determine predictors of clinical worsening in Meth-APAH, and study the role of genetic mutations and activity in this population.  The mutation of interest (CES1) was discovered through Wall Center-sponsored research in Dr. de Jesus Perez's lab group who will be leading the efforts in this grant effort to analyze how mutations in CES1 produce METH-PAH using cell-based and animal models

Dr. Xinguo Jiang was awarded a $2.3M R01 grant that studies how hypoxic responses, mediated by hypoxia inducible factors (HIFs), modulate lymphatic vascular remodeling and metabolic alterations in lymphedema. Lymphedema afflicts nearly 200 million patients globally including 15-50% cancer survivals but has no approved drug therapies. This grant investigates important lymphatic pathologies associated with hypoxia and how these may be driven by inflammation and edema. Dr. Amy Tian and I serve as co-investigators on this work. Key collaborators are Drs. Gregg Semenza (Johns Hopkins), Stanley Rockson (Cardiology, Stanford), and Brandon Dixon (Georgia Tech). Xinguo is a PI at the VA Palo Alto.

Working with Dr. Jiang as part of the VA Palo Alto group, Dr. Amy Tian and Mark Nicolls were awarded two new awards in PAH research including new R01 and VA Merit grant awards with $3.2M in funding. This research involves how immunity and immune dysregulation contribute to pulmonary vascular remodeling and explores the possibility of Treg (cell-based) therapy for PAH patients. These projects involve key collaborations with Drs. Qizli Tang (UCSF),  Joseph Wu (CVI, Stanford), Mike Snyder (Genetics, Stanford) , and Peter Kao.

There is a lot to report on funding for the Sean N. Parker Center for Allergy and Asthma Research. Beginning with PI, Dr. Kari Nad​eau. Kari recently received a P01 PPG for $10.6M from the NHLBI to study the links between human health issues and molecular mechanisms of exposure to air pollution and to wildfire smoke. The team includes Drs. Mary Prunicki, Sharon Chinthrajah, Joseph Wu, Mike Snyder, Francois Haddad (Cardiology, Stanford), Holden Maecker (HIMC, Stanford), Brian Kim, Manisha Desai (QSU, Stanford), and PJ Utz (Rheumatology, Stanford). Dr. Nadeau (PI) with Drs. Chinthrajah and Sindher as co-Investigators and received an NIAID funded multinational study this past year.  Dr. Nadeau (PI) with Dr. Chinthrajah and Dr. Sindher as co-Investigators and their team at the Parker Center received an NIAID funded multinational study ($12.1M) for the prevention of food allergies.

Drs. Prunicki and Nadeau (PI) were recently awarded and will co-lead an NIEHS funded R21 ($0.5M) with Drs. Haddad and Christopher Gardner HRP on the effect of exposures and nutrition on COVID disease outcomes.  They were also awarded an NIEHS awarded R01 ($1.9M) on research on pregnancy and exposure to air pollution, studying immune tolerance and disease outcomes for the prevention of food allergies. Dr. Sindher will also lead a study ($0.5M) in the NIH PCORI grant awarded to Stanford PEDS Net (Dr. Grace Lee,  Dr. Bonnie Maldonado of Pediatrics) to researching asthma in children working with our pulmonary colleagues at LPCH.

This welcome news comes at an exciting time for Divisional researchers as our Stanford-based wet labs and offices have moved last week to our new location and offices at 1701 Page Mill Rd. in mid-August. This is an amazing facility for which the PACCM Division has purchased new equipment to benefit incoming researchers https://stanfordresearchpark.com/projects/1701-page-mill-road. We hope to have a reception in the coming months to showcase the facility.

Our move is part of a larger overall growth strategy in Stanford Research Park where it will form a new 'Life-Sciences District' for Stanford University https://stanfordresearchpark.com/life-science-district. 

Additionally, our VA group is relocating into the new VA Palo Alto Basic Science Bldg. in November 2021 https://www.paloalto.va.gov/construction_research.asp. The VA Palo Alto is physically close to the Life-Sciences District and there will be opportunities for research growth in the VA system as well.

August 12, 2021

We are thrilled to announce that Dr. Michelle Cao, a well-known colleague within the Stanford School of Medicine community and beyond, will be joining the PACCM division in September 2021. 

Michelle's expertise and knowledge in home ventilation, and management of patients with complex pulmonary disorders related to neuromuscular disease, sleep disorders, as well as restrictive conditions are respected among many departments locally and nationally. 

Working closely with Dr. John Day, Professor of Neurology, they have been serving patients with conditions who benefit from this multidisciplinary approach, and we are fortunate to have Dr. Day and Dr. Longo's support to continue a collaborative relationship across departments.  Michelle will continue to have a courtesy faculty appointment with the Department of Psychiatry to collaborate with its world-renowned Sleep Center led by Drs. Clete Kushida and Emmanuel Mignot.  These invaluable relationships took many years to build and will be the cornerstone of emerging clinical and academic work. 

Michelle completed her medical degree from Western University School of Medicine, and Internal Medicine residency at Loma Linda. She was a PCCM fellow and a sleep fellow at Stanford. She has been clinical faculty since 2008 and currently at clinical associate professor ranked. 

Dr. Cao will be at the Palo Alto and Emeryville sites to build innovative initiatives around restrictive ventilatory disorders along with general pulmonary medicine. Her expertise will greatly elevate our pulmonary hypertension, interstitial lung disease and advanced COPD programs, just to name a few. Michelle will also be part of the important core group practicing critical care medicine at Stanford-Valleycare with its busy medical ICU and multi-specialty surgical programs.

Finally, Michelle will accelerate the educational objectives to our fellows in PACCM, Critical Care Medicine and beyond; her leadership roles with California Thoracic Society will continue to cultivate the academic and teaching missions of the division. 

Welcome, Michelle!

July 27, 2021

The U.S. News and World Report rankings were released and pulmonary medicine continues to rise in the rankings. We know that when rankings don't go the way we like, we can always point to the flaws in the scoring system (it's a legitimate complaint). Nevertheless, when our rankings continue to edge up year after year, maybe the trend means something! It's nice to step back and acknowledge the phenomenal job that you and our Stanford colleagues in related disciplines are doing.

Congratulations to all the fellows, faculty and staff who have worked together to forge such a great division!

Stanford Health Care ranked #12, as well, so another banner year for SHC.

Here's a list of the ranked pulmonology and lung surgery hospitals for 2021-2022:
#1. Mayo Clinic
#2. National Jewish Health, Denver-University of Colorado
#3. Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
#4. UCLA
#5. Cleveland Clinic
#6. NYU Langone
#7. Johns Hopkins
#8. Penn
#9. UC San Diego
#10. NY-Pres-Columbia & Cornell
#11. UCSF
#12. Stanford
#12. Mayo-Clinic-Phoenix
#14. Northwestern
#15. Michigan
#16. Mass General
#17. North Shore
#17. Vanderbilt
#19. Houston Methodist
#19. Mt. Sinai
#21. USC
#22. UT Southwestern
#23. Brigham & Women's
#24. Sloan-Kettering
#25. Wash U
#26. Beaumont-Hospital
#27. Yale
#28. Rush
#29. Ohio State
#30. UC Davis
#31. Alabama
#32. Hoag Memorial
#33. Kansas
#34. John Muir-Walnut Creek
#35. Duke
#36. Northwestern-Lake Forest
#37. University of Florida (Gainesville)
#39. St. Cloud
#39. Jefferson
#41. Pittsburgh (UPMC)
#42. Oregon (OHSU)
#43. Loyola
#44. Beaumont Hospital-Grosse Pointe
#45. Sharp Memorial
#45. University of Chicago
#47. Huntington
#48. Avera McKennan
#49. Carle Foundation
#50. Reading

Great job everyone! Thanks to your hard work, our trajectory and reputation continue to rise.

July 7, 2021

We are delighted to announce that Dr. Linda Zhu will be joining the PACCM division today as Clinical Assistant Professor and will be practicing at the Atherton Allergy, Asthma, & Immunodeficiency Clinic.

Linda is a Bay Area native who completed her undergraduate degree in molecular and cell biology at UC Berkeley. She then received her medical degree at Case Western/Cleveland Clinic and completed a Doris Duke Clinical Research Fellowship. After finishing her internal medicine training at University of Chicago, she worked a couple of years as a hospitalist and returned to the Bay Area to complete her allergy/immunology training at Stanford. Linda is particularly interested in drug allergy evaluations and quality improvement, having completed the Stanford Pediatric Hospital Medicine Quality Improvement and Leadership Training (QuILT) Certificate Program. She lives in the South Bay with her husband, Heng, who is a pulmonary/critical care medicine attending at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, and their 2-year-old daughter Evie. We are very fortunate to have her join our group.

Please join us in welcoming Dr. Zhu to the PACCM family!

June 28, 2021

Just wanted to share some more good news today about some exciting team science initiatives that have been recently funded and being conducted at the Sean N. Parker Center. Dr. Sharon Chinthrajah, as principal investigator (PI), will lead the AMAZE collaboration bringing together the Parker Center with PACCM, Quantitative Sciences Unit (Manisha Desai, Mary Boulos, and Ariadna Garcia), Stanford Center for Digital Health. and Technology & Digital Solutions, and AMAZE through a central agreement with Stanford and Astra Zeneca to integrate a mobile platform into EPIC for asthmatics to conduct high impact research and outreach and see how we can improve communications between patients and providers.

In more funding news, Dr. Tina Sindher will serve as the PI leading the California Initiative to Advance Precision Medicine (CIAPM) funded project titled, “Systems-based, Multidisciplinary Assessment of Adversity and Toxic Stress for Individualized Care (The SYSTEMAATIC Project).” She will work with the PACCM, the Quantitative Sciences Unit, community groups, the Department of Pediatrics, and the Department of Medicine. The major goal of this study is to use precision medicine approaches to improve our understanding of biomarkers predictive of risk and outcome for individuals impacted by Adverse Childhood Experiences (known as ACES) ultimately leading to multi-disciplinary and biomarker-based (rather than symptoms-based) treatment decisions. The results will be earlier detection and more targeted clinical recommendations to address the root causes of toxic stress, especially under resourced and underserved communities.

Team science is the present and future of clinical research, and our young Faculty at the Parker Center are becoming accomplished leaders in this realm. Congrats to Sharon and Tina!

June 28, 2021

We are pleased to announce that Stanford will be launching the Stanford Interventional Pulmonology (IP) Fellowship Program which is posed to start training its inaugural fellow in July 2022. Selection of the fellow will be through an ABIM match process. 

Founded by Dr. Arthur Sung in 2013, the Stanford IP program has expanded dramatically. Beginning at 600 procedures/year, our group does approximately 2500/year now - making Stanford the largest IP Program in the Western United States.  Arthur has recruited top notch faculty into our fold including Drs. Harmeet Bedi, Meghan Ramsey, Kevin Duong, and Brian Shaller. Recently, Arthur handed the Medical Directorship over to Dr. Bedi who now leads the Stanford Program. I want to particularly acknowledge the work of Dr. Brian Shaller, working with Dr. Bedi, in doing the considerable work to get approval at the local and national level for this new fellowship.

Since its inception, the IP group has been committed to forging strong interdisciplinary relationships with Oncology, Thoracic Surgery, Lung Transplant, ENT, and others, with the goal of delivering comprehensive care to some of our most clinically challenging patients. The group is now well positioned to further serve the IP community at-large by taking an active role in training future interventionalists in state-of-the-art diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. Soon, we will be implementing robotic bronchoscopy and cone beam CT navigation bronchoscopy.

Stanford’s IP fellowship is a yearlong intensive training program accredited by the American Association for Bronchology and Interventional Pulmonology (AABIP). The program will train one fellow annually in advanced diagnostic procedures, therapeutic interventions, inpatient consultative services, and outpatient care of individuals with complex chest diseases. During training, the IP fellow will also gain exposure to experimental and investigational techniques, engage in a clinical research project, and work alongside rotating PACCM and CCM fellows in a complementary role that we anticipate will enrich the overall educational experience of the IP rotation. 

We look forward to welcoming our first IP fellow into the Stanford PACCM community next year and to hosting many more trainees in years to come. Congratulations to the fantastic Stanford IP Program on this accomplishment!

June 25, 2021

Yesterday, we learned some exciting news about Dr. Andrea Jonas, the Associate Program Director (APD) for our PCCM Fellowship. Andrea was announced as one of two new APDs for the Stanford Internal Medicine (IM) Residency, one of the very best and most competitive programs in the country. She is joined by her colleague, Dr. Kevin Keet, as the other new APD - as well as our own Angela Rogers who has also been a vital member of their leadership team for several years. Andrea is part of a growing number of PACCM faculty members who have been appointed to important leadership roles in the DOM and SOM in recent years.

Dr. Jonas earned her M.D. from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, completing her IM residency training there, followed by Pulmonary/Critical Care Medicine fellowship training at Stanford.  She served as both Chief Fellow and as a Clinical Excellence Research Center (CERC) Design Fellow at Stanford and won the resident-nominated award for Best Clinical Teaching by a Medicine Fellow.  In addition to her work as a clinician and educator, she has been a leader in DOM diversity equity and inclusion efforts (DEI), founding the Critical Care Diversity Council and serving as one of the mentors in the Leadership Education in Advancing Diversity (LEAD) program.  As an APD, Dr. Jonas will help direct efforts in critical care training, DEI programs, and our Medicine-Anesthesia combined residency program. Our other new IM APD, Dr. Keet (Hospital Medicine), will focus on inpatient education at both the VA Palo Alto and Stanford and further develop quality and simulation programs.

Andrea emerged as an important leader for our group, helping to guide our fellows through the tumult of 2020 with Joe Levitt and Angela Rogers on the Fellowship front and with Dr. de Jesus Perez on key inclusion and diversity initiatives in our division. We are very proud of her accomplishments and know that Stanford's great IM residency will be well-served with her on their leadership group.

Congratulations, Andrea!

June 24, 2021

We are delighted to announce that Dr. Jennifer Williams is joining our group as a Clinical Assistant Professor. Dr. Williams received her Medical Degree from New York Medical College, IM residency at Jacobi Medical Center/Albert Einstein with PCCM fellowship at Rutgers. Dr. Williams will be a key faculty member to help lead important COPD initiatives for the division at Stanford including the Livermore and Pleasanton (ValleyCare) sites.  Welcome Jennifer!

June 11, 2021

We are thrilled to announce that Dr. June Gordon is our new Medicine CCM Fellowship Associate Program Director. Dr. Gordon will be working with Dr. Meghan Ramsey, who was recently appointed to the Program Director position. Many thanks to Dr. Paul Mohabir for agreeing to help guide June in her new role for a few months as she transitions into this position.  As most of you know, we have exceptionally talented CCM fellows from several disciplines in this fellowship, including a number of ED-trained Fellows. In recent decades, Emergency Medicine has emerged as an important contributor for the 21st century ICU, and an integral part of the Stanford MICU team.

Dr. Gordon is an Assistant Professor in the Emergency Medicine Department. A graduate of Phillips Academy Andover, Williams College, and the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine, June did her Emergency Medicine Residency at Stanford where she served as Chief Resident, followed by CCM Fellowship where she served as Chief Fellow for two years.  Dr. Gordon has been working to support the CCM fellowship over the last year and has done an exceptional job.  She has a deep knowledge and experience of this training program and is well-beloved by her peers and trainees, alike.

Dr. Gordon's appointment represents positive movement with our interdepartmental collaborative efforts in the ICU. We are so fortunate at Stanford to be able to bring our groups together, across several specialties, to provide an exciting mix of talents that enhance the academic mission to provide outstanding patient care, deliver dynamic education, and perform transformative research.

June 7, 2021

A big congratulations to Matthew McCarra for winning the Chan Zuckerberg (CZ) Biohub Physician-Scientist Fellowship; this is only the second cohort of elected CZ Biohub Physician-Scientists. 

Our T32 Co-PI, David Cornfield, is Co-Director of this exciting fellowship. The program and environment are designed to meaningfully enhance the career growth of physician-scientists. The CZ Biohub’s unique program is designed for physicians interested in creating new knowledge that addresses the challenges in human health. Physicians entering the program have an opportunity to train in disciplines that promise to transform current paradigms of patient care. According to the CZ-Biohub website, the fellowship is designed to 'develop the next generation of physician-scientists and equip them with the skills, vocabulary, and knowledge necessary to contribute substantively to biomedical discovery'. 

Dr. McCarra had a distinguished fellowship and was selected to be the Chief Fellow. Most of you know that Matt is now doing basic science research in Tushar Desai's laboratory on lung stem cells in health and disease. It's a great honor and we are truly proud of Matt for winning this Fellowship.

April 23, 2021

We are pleased to announce that our recent T32 Alum' Lea Steffes won the prestigious Parker B. Francis Award for the Class of 2021.  Lea is an Instructor in the Division of Pediatric Pulmonary Medicine. She performs elegant pulmonary circulation research under the guidance of Dr. Maya Kumar. Dr. David Cornfield is serving as her Parker B. Francis mentor for the project. The Parker B. Francis Fellowship in Pulmonary Research supports the development of outstanding investigators embarking on careers in pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine. The mission of the foundation is to help develop independent investigators. Receiving this award is highly-predictive of future academic careers, and our own Adult and Pediatric Divisions bear witness to this fact with recent former PBF Fellows Kari Nadeau, Angela Rogers, Joe Hsu, Elizabeth Burgener, and Ke Yuan (all academic faculty at Stanford and Harvard). Congratulations Lea!

April 22, 2021

We are excited to announce that Drs. Layla Barkal and Ana Pacheco-Navarro, both PCCM fellows in the PACCM Division will be the next physician-scientists to join the T-32 funded, Stanford Pulmonary Biology Training Program. 

With the addition of Layla and Ana, we continue to build our community of invested, intellectually-engaged pulmonary physician-scientists. Layla will be working under the mentorship of Dr. Paul Bollyky. Ana will be training under Dr. Angela Rogers. We are delighted to welcome these new scholars with their mentors! 

April 22, 2021

It gives us great pleasure to announce Dr. Tina Sindher’s promotion to Clinical Associate Professor! Tina is an endowed faculty from the Gies Foundation who has established herself as a leader in the field of Allergy and Immunology by employing cutting-edge research to not only better understand the mechanisms behind food allergy but also develop treatment and prevention opportunities. 

Tina joined Stanford University School of Medicine as a Clinical Assistant Professor of Allergy/Immunology in 2017 and has been invested in research and the care of the allergic individual through outpatient clinics. She is the principal investigator of several clinical research trials at the Sean N. Parker Center. Tina played a key role in the development of a pilot protocol to understand the effect of different emollients and their impact on transepidermal water loss in children with eczema. The results of the study helped obtain an NIH funded multi-institutional international study (SEAL), and she is now the site PI, and on the scientific advisory committee, as well as protocol development team and has spearheaded the efforts to get the study initiated at multiple sites. She is a tireless advocate for children and families she cares for in every dimension. She has collaborated with the Center for Youth Wellness (CYW) and has started the National Committee on Asthma and Toxic Stress (NCATS). The committee has created a scientific advisory panel with the goal of establishing the strong evidence linking childhood adversity and asthma and offer recommendations regarding future research and clinical management for asthma in the setting of toxic stress.

Over the past four years, Tina has also taken up numerous administrative and leadership responsibilities. She is the Director of Clinician Training at the SNP center and oversees our summer research internship program and has mentored several undergraduate and medical school students in successfully submitting abstracts and manuscripts. Due to her successful application, the SNP center is now a Food Allergy Research and Education (FARE) Discovery Center. As Site Director, she helps lead multi-site collaborations, protocol development, and subsequent participation in food allergy clinical trials. Congratulations Tina!

April 21, 2021

We are pleased to announce that Dr. Meghan Marmor will be the new Quality Director for Chest Clinics in the Division. This leadership role is currently held by Dr. Meghan Ramsey who did a great job with our expanding operation. As previously announced, in July, Dr. Ramsey will become the new Program Director of the Medicine Critical Care Medicine Fellowship Program and will be stepping down from her role as Quality Director. (Thank you, Meghan R.!)

Between attending both our Palo Alto and Emeryville Chest Clinics and her presence at ValleyCare, Meghan Marmor plans to engage in projects that will holistically benefit our Bay Area pulmonary patients.  Working with Dr. Arroyo, she will integrate her quality projects with the Atherton Allergy Clinic and their clinical team. The role of a quality director is to improve clinical care using structured problem solving. Meghan's aim as Chest Clinic Quality Director will be to continue to optimize our clinics' performance by promoting the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) quadruple aim: improved patient experience, lower costs, better patient outcomes and improved patient experience.

Each academic year, she will be responsible for creating an annual quality plan and identify an implementation team within our clinics where, as a group, we move those quality initiatives into action.  She will serve as a representative for our division at monthly Department of Medicine Quality Committee meetings, which in turn will give her the opportunity to learn from other divisional quality initiatives. Congrats Meghan!

April 9, 2021

We are thrilled to announce that Dr. Meghan Ramsey is the new Program Director (PD) for the Internal Medicine CCM Fellowship program administered by PACCM.  Meghan received her B.S. in Neuroscience at Lafayette College (sum cum laude). She was a Stanford Medical Student, Stanford IM Resident (and Chief Resident), PCCM Fellow (and Chief Fellow). She has been a faculty member since 2015 and has distinguished herself as clinician-educator. She is the Stanford Science of Medicine Pulmonary Block Co-Director, Pathophysiology Board Review Course Director and has been active in developing the curriculum for the PCCM Fellowship. In addition to being an active intensivist, she is a trained interventional pulmonologist and has taught procedures at national meetings. Other leadership roles have included PACCM Division Quality Director and the Advanced Lung Disease Unit Based Medical Director. She is widely respected for her clinical acumen, patient advocacy, consummate professionalism, and educational commitment. She is an inspirational colleague and integral person in the Stanford biomedical community.

This leadership role for Dr. Ramsey follows the promotion of Dr. Paul Mohabir to Co-Director of multidisciplinary medical-surgical ICU (MSICU). Paul did a great job as PD and will continue as the Associate PD for the IM-CCM Fellowship for the next year to facilitate a smooth leadership transition for the training program. As previously announced, Paul shares his leadership role as Co-Director with Dr. Javier Lorenzo who represents the Dept. of Anesthesia/Division of Critical Care under Division Chief, Dr. Rebecca Aslakson. Dr. Ramsey will work closely with her dyadic partner, Dr. Erin Hennessey, PD for the Anesthesia CCM Fellowship, to foster outstanding clinical training in the principles and practice of critical care medicine. The MSICU also includes ED attendings who are key components of the interdisciplinary faculty with PCCM and Anesthesia; this group works closely with intensivist colleagues in neurocritical care, surgery and cardiovascular surgery. 

The MSICU is a uniquely-Stanford collaborative educational experience. Dr. Ann Weinacker serves as the overall ICU Medical Director and leads the critical care units throughout Stanford Hospital. The ICU community at Stanford includes a dynamic group of physicians and physician-scientists. Dr. Ramsey assumes the role of PD for the IM-CCM Fellowship Program during a transformational period of growth, interdisciplinary collaboration, and renewed commitment to academic development for CCM at Stanford.

April 6, 2021

We are thrilled to announce that Dr. Joe Hsu is the recipient of a new NIH R01 Grant investigating macrophages and iron metabolism in the process of fungal invasion of lung transplant recipients. Joe's research lives in the fascinating interface of infectious disease and transplant immunology.

As many of you know, Joe won a competitive national search for a faculty position a few years ago. As a talented clinician, he attends in the busy CT-ICU and directs the Stanford Graft-versus-Host Disease Pulmonary Clinic (in close collaboration with our BMT colleagues).

Joe is a beloved mentor, colleague, and friend. We are thrilled that with this award, he has successfully transitioned from Parker B. Francis Scholar,  to K08-recipient and to the important milestone in academic careers, the R01 awardee.

March 30, 2021

We are pleased to announce that, beginning April 1st, Dr. Paul Mohabir will become Co-Director of the multi-disciplinary MICU at Stanford, representing critical care medicine (CCM) from Medicine.  We are also thrilled that Paul will be teaming up with Dr. Javier Lorenzo who will serve as the MICU Co-Director representing CCM from Anesthesia. 

As many of you know, Stanford University is uniquely fortunate to have a collaborative CCM training environment. In 1974, the Departments of Medicine and Anesthesia at Stanford University determined developing a formal program could well serve the training of physicians and the needs of patients. Dr. Myer Rosenthal from Anesthesia began serving as the first Medical Director of the MICU in 1975, followed by Dr. Norm Rizk from Pulmonary Medicine in 1997. The creation of Co-Director positions recognizes the impressive legacy of cooperative care between the Departments of Medicine and Anesthesia which has left its imprint on the national landscape of critical care medicine. We are happy to have the Emergency Department now also with us on our evolving team as we move into the 2020s.

Paul and Javier will be responsible for overseeing and ensuring the highest quality care and medical best practices for all patients on the MICU service.  As part of his new role Paul will become the Unit-Based Medical Director (UBMD) for E2 and is responsible for quality in this 300P ICU. Javier will oversee the medical ICU in 500P.

Working with Javier, Paul will help formally codify a robust leadership group in the MICU, including faculty who have already been acting formally or informally as leaders, particularly as we have faced the challenges of dealing with the pandemic.  Fellows will be included part of the leadership group and will work collaboratively with ICU nursing leaders. The leadership team is spearheaded by Dr. Ann Weinacker who, in addition to being the Associate Chief Medical Officer (Inpatient Care Services), is the (collective) ICU Director over all the burgeoning critical care units at Stanford.

Paul has been an outstanding intensivist for many years at Stanford and his dedication to the care of critically ill patients and the education of our trainees has been unwavering. Javier is similarly an outstanding CCM physician and educator. We are lucky to have both leaders assume this role.  A big congratulations to both Paul and Javier!

March 29, 2021

Pulmonary Biology T32 (NIH Training Grant) Awarded to Stanford!

We are happy to let you know that this morning our $1.8M T32 grant was awarded and extended another 5 years. We received a great score from the NIH and were anticipating this outcome. In the summary, reviewers noted how the Stanford program aims to offer a rigorous and supportive environment for physician-scientists to conduct research in vascular disease, stem cells/development, genetics/genomics, lung injury/repair, immunology, microbiome, outcomes research, cancer, and/or imaging to prepare for successful careers in biomedicine. 

Our strengths were perceived to be the exceptional research environment, outstanding leadership, unique and important bridging of adult and pediatric pulmonary research, and appropriate trainee outcomes given the young age of the program. There was a suggestion that future iterations of the T32 should now include more training slots, which we will plan on doing.

The T32 grant submission was a team effort. We our profoundly grateful to Katrina Barajas, Maya Melendrez, Danielle Hendrickson, Benita Kaeding and Lana Henthorn for their help in assembling the large grant which was a full 326 pages!

We look forward to training the next generation of pulmonary biology leaders at Stanford. We are so proud of our amazing pulmonary/critical care medicine trainees at Stanford.

March 24, 2021

A big congratulations to Angela Rogers for winning the Physician of the Year for Stanford Health Care Award! Her abilities to organize and motivate her teams are recognized as a real asset to Stanford. The award appropriately reflects a physician who consistently achieves high standards in the practice of medicine and is looked upon as a role model by his or her peers. The recipient must display exceptional teamwork, engagement, and passion for medicine.

We are exceptionally proud of Angela as a leader for the PCCM Fellowship, IM Residency, and critical care research efforts. Her role as the Task Force Chair of the COVID-19 during the pandemic, performed while continuing as an NIH R01-funded critical care researcher, is vital to Stanford just as her performance was inspiring. Indeed, for Angela to have won this award during the year of the pandemic is especially noteworthy given the numerous physician-heroes on the frontlines at Stanford. I know that Angela treasures her colleagues in Critical Care, Anesthesia, Emergency Medicine and Surgery and am sure that she feels that she shares her honor with so many supportive, hard-working, and talented colleagues.

February 17, 2021

The PACCM Division is very pleased to announce that Dr. Vinicio de Jesus Perez has been named as the first Stanford PACCM Director of Faculty and Fellow Diversity and Inclusion.  In this role, Vinicio will work with Department of Medicine leadership on initiatives that will continue to promote diversity and equality for fellows and faculty.  We learned in 2020 that our ICUs, hospital wards, and clinics are a stage upon which societal ills meet medical care; our discipline is on the frontline of this challenging interface.

For as long as we have known Dr. de Jesus Perez, he has been a tireless champion for raising up the under-represented. His charges have been the most-aspirational, talented, and challenged; their age groups range from secondary schools all the way up to Stanford faculty. Vinicio will lead efforts to strengthen our efforts around pulmonary health and disease to advocate, educate and develop the careers of our underserved and disadvantaged communities. We are excited to work with Vinicio in this new initiative and help him increase the Division's national standing as a leader in Diversity and Inclusion Initiatives.  

He looks forward to working with all our trainees and faculty in the years ahead. Congrats, Vinicio!

February 17, 2021

The PACCM Division is very pleased to announce that Dr. Angela Rogers is being promoted to the Associate Professor level in the MCL line. As most of you know, Angela has been a tremendous leader for the Fellowship Program, Internal Medicine Program, the MICU and the COVID-19 Task Force. In addition to this, she is an R01-funded ICU clinical researcher, physician-scientist, nationally recognized critical care expert, and role-model. We are very happy for this well-deserved recognition of her hard work, talent, and accomplishments.

February 2, 2021

Congratulations to Dr. Harmeet Bedi - Promotion to Director of Interventional Pulmonology (IP) and Bronchoscopy. 

Dr. Bedi will assume the leadership role to oversee the continual growth of Stanford PACCM procedural volume, adoption of advancing technologies, as well as academic research focusing on lung cancer care innovations.  

Harmeet joined our division in 2016 after his IP fellowship at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, under the esteemed tutelage of Dr. Mike Simoff. Since, he has been a key faculty to elevate the IP program within Stanford and nationally.  Dr. Bedi leads his team and collaborates with multiple departments including radiology, thoracic oncology, thoracic surgery, radiation oncology, among many others. His ability to unite multiple specialties to engage with clinical and academic excellence is an essential quality for his continual successes. 

In his leadership role, Dr. Bedi will direct multiple efforts for the IP. This includes expanding IP services to multiple Stanford healthcare sites, establishing an IP fellowship, as well as preparing our core PACCM fellows to be well equipped during their training in all aspects of procedural skills. 

We are looking forward to his many successes for years to come

February 1, 2021

It is with sadness that we announce the passing of Priscilla Sarinas MD, former Chief of the Pulmonary Section at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System.   After graduating medical school at UCSF,  she completed her Internal Medicine Residency at Kaiser Hospital, Santa Clara,  followed by subspecialty training in Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine at Stanford.  She joined the VA as a staff physician in 1985 and served on the Stanford clinical faculty. At the VA, she attended the medical-surgical intensive care unit and on the pulmonary and sleep medicine consultative services.  She served as Chief of the VA Pulmonary Section for 12 years, stepping down in 1998. In later years, she transitioned to Sleep Medicine at PAMF.

As recalled by Michael Gould, MD, MS, Professor of Health Systems Science at Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine, Priscilla was unfailingly kind, thoughtful and devoted to her patients, colleagues, and trainees.  She was widely viewed as a wonderful doctor and a popular teacher and mentor. She became the first Sleep Medicine-boarded physician at the VA and had a major leadership role in expanding and modernizing Sleep Medicine at the VA.  Dr. Rajinder Chitkara noted that Priscilla always found time for her colleagues, her friends, and her family, especially her parents, her husband Kim, and their daughter, Rose Marie. She will be deeply missed by the local biomedical community.

December 3, 2020

Welcome to the Stanford PCCM Class of 2024!

The Stanford Pulmonary, Allergy, & Critical Care Medicine Division is thrilled to introduce the members of our incoming class of PCCM Fellows, starting July 2021!

Dr. Solmaz Afshar, Yale
Dr. Landy Luna, University of Miami chief
Dr. Manoj Maddali, UCSF
Dr. Jason Melehani, Stanford
Dr. Andrew Moore, Stanford chief
Dr. Shaun Pienkos, Stanford
Dr. Maya Viavant, Cornell chief

We could not be more proud of our incoming class of fellows and please join us in welcoming them to the Stanford family!

November 24, 2020

It is with great pleasure to announce that Dr. Sharon Chinthrajah has won a national search for a Faculty Position focusing on clinical research in allergy and asthma at Stanford. As an Associate Professor in the Medical Center Line track, Sharon is also an endowed faculty from the Crown Family who established herself as a physician-scientist investigating immune mechanisms in food allergy and asthma. She is the Director of the Clinical Translational Research Unit of the Sean N. Parker Center for Allergy and Asthma Research where she leads the team to conduct novel and impactful Phase 1-3 studies in food allergy, asthma, allergic rhinitis, and atopic dermatitis. She currently oversees over 26 active clinical trials and is funded by the NIH in the overlapping diseases of food allergy, asthma, allergic rhinitis, eczema, and eosinophilic esophagitis. She investigates immune dysregulation and is licensed in both Pulmonary/Critical Care and Allergy/immunology.

Nominated by Dean Minor and Bob Harrington, Sharon was also selected as one of the top clinical research projects by The Clinical Research Forum in 2020 for her study “Sustained outcomes in oral immunotherapy for peanut allergy (POISED study): a large, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase 2 study”. This study was chosen from an impressive field of application and extremely qualified research programs.

November 16, 2020

We are thrilled to announce a new leadership role for Dr. Tushar Desai who will serve as the Stanford PACCM Director of Translational Lung Biology. As most of you know, Tushar is an emerging international leader in basic and translational lung biology and has become a highly effective mentor and guiding force for academic endeavors.

In this role, Tushar will continue to co-organize the Divisional PACCM Grand Rounds series (with Angela Rogers) and engage the trainees in the Pulmonary Biology T32 seminar series to provide scientific mentoring. He will also launch a regular series for fellows and instructors engaged in lab research to foster a community in which topical workshops and seminars will help facilitate their scientific and career development.

Tushar would love to meet all trainees and junior faculty interested in careers centered on exploring lung health and disease - so please also feel free to reach out to him on your own to connect.

November 16, 2020

PACCM is playing a major role on the pandemic frontline. The most recent issue of Stanford Medicine features a great story about interdisciplinary collaboration in the Medical Intensive Care Unit.  Dr. Ann Weinacker is the new Medical Director of this Unit. The story prominently features Drs. Angela Rogers and Javier Lorenzo (Anesthesia).

https://stanmed.stanford.edu/2020issue2/icu-covid-19-best-practices-fragile-patients.html

Inside Stanford’s COVID-19 ICU team | Stanford Medicine

Urgency for collaboration became clear. Chaired by Angela Rogers, MD, the Stanford COVID-19 critical care task force met three times a week at first to hash out the best-practice guidelines. At its peak during those early days, staff members were caring for 10 to 15 patients and preparing for the possibility of a sudden increase along the lines of what hit New York and Boston.

stanmed.stanford.edu

October 5, 2020

A big congratulations to Dr. Andrea Jonas for her first author articles regarding her recent work in vaping related lung disease! Her first article was published in Chest this month:   Chest EVALI Systematic Review:  https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1bs6f2p-k%7EwDP  along with a Chest Vaping Podcast:  https://journal.chestnet.org/podcast-archive-2020.  She also reviewed and then wrote an editorial on lipid laden macrophages in vaping related lung injury as well:  EbioMedicine Lancet Editorial:  https://www.thelancet.com/journals/ebiom/article/PIIS2352-3964(20)30386-8/fulltext.  Andrea is doing a great job under Dr. Rishi Raj’s mentorship.

September 29, 2020

(From Reddy, Sumathi "Four Different Family Members, Four Different Covid-19 Outcomes", Wall Street Journal  https://apple.news/A91FwLlDPR1i10egCz2THGw)

Dr. Kari Nadeau of Stanford and Columbia researchers study why people, even in the same family, have different coronavirus symptoms. 

The Ruspini family in Sunnyvale, Calif., went down like dominoes. One by one, they all got the coronavirus in early April, but with different symptoms and recovery trajectories.

Diego Ruspini, a 53-year-old computer scientist with a history of asthma, was hospitalized for a week in early April, and coped with respiratory issues and fatigue until August.

His wife, Connie Lares, a 48-year-old medical interpreter at Stanford Children’s Hospital, had a couple of weeks of low-grade fever, body aches, diarrhea and hot flashes. By June she felt well enough to hike a 14,500-foot mountain.

Their 17-year-old daughter, Natalia, was hardly able to eat for months, and dealt with brain fog and fatigue. And their 12-year-old son, Santiago, had no symptoms except for an increased appetite and low-grade fever for a few days, despite a congenital heart condition.

One of the biggest mysteries of the virus that causes Covid-19 is why it leads to such different experiences for the people it strikes. While some severe outcomes can be explained by people more at risk of serious illness—such as the elderly and those with chronic conditions—other outcomes have left doctors and researchers stumped, particularly the subset of Covid-19 patients with persistent symptoms, who often refer to themselves as long-haulers or long-

Several studies—including at Columbia University, Stanford University School of Medicine, and the University of California, San Francisco—are trying to better understand the different reactions to the same virus.

 “The thing that has really stood out to me the most about this viral infection is that it’s really remarkable how much variability there is on the recovery end,” says Michael Peluso, a clinical fellow in the division of HIV, infectious diseases, and global medicine at UCSF, and a member of a team working on the LIINC (Long-term Impact of Infection with Novel Coronavirus) study.

The Ruspini family is part of a Stanford Medicine study—called The Long Term Immunity(LTI) study—looking at the immune response and post-Covid health of about 200

participants. The study includes 40 children, 20 pregnant women, as well as couples and families. About 30% of participants were hospitalized due to Covid-19.

The participants’ symptoms are varied and can’t all be explained by genetics, says Kari Nadeau, a professor of medicine and pediatrics at Stanford University and director of its Sean N. Parker Center for Allergy and Asthma Research, who is overseeing the study. “Even within one family who get the same strain of the virus at the same time and have the same underlying genetics, the symptoms that people are showing can be different,” says Dr. Nadeau.

September 16, 2020

Dr. Angela Rogers, who co-directs the Stanford IM Program and leads our PACCM Fellowship and as well as COVID-19 ICU efforts, has just been awarded a $3M NIH R01 grant evaluating patients with ARDS in the ICU. The grant focuses on the molecular characterization of pulmonary edema - using the fluid that is readily available in endotracheal aspirates of mechanically-ventilated patients as a window for understanding on the pathogenic processes at play in injured lungs.

We always expect great things of Angela, and so aren't surprised by this great success. It's worth noting, though, that getting an R01 in critical care studies is particularly challenging for young investigators. This is because of the multi-institutional nature of the work that really depends on cooperative efforts of the clinical researchers - often hard to achieve for junior faculty. In this regard, Angela has been able to effectively work with great talent at UCSF and Vanderbilt to forge such an impactful proposal. Such efforts help further lift the national profile of Stanford's amazing MICU program.

September 15, 2020

We are excited to announce that David Condon has been selected as a 2020 TRAM scholar by the Department of Medicine for his work entitled "The role of LITAF in the pathogenesis of pulmonary hypertension".  

TRAM scholarships are awarded to 10 highly promising fellows and early career faculty members with clinical and translational research projects judged to have high potential of yielding transformative results.      

Over the next two years, David will carry out translational studies that will establish the contribution of the immunomodulatory protein LITAF on the initiation and progression of vascular inflammatory responses in the lung.  

September 9, 2020

(From CVI Press release https://med.stanford.edu/cvi/mission/news_center/articles_announcements/understanding-emphysema-role-of-hif-2a.html)

Understanding Emphysema – The Role of HIF-2α

Pulmonary diseases like emphysema are the third leading cause of death in the US and the fourth leading cause worldwide. Emphysema occurs when air sacs in the lungs are damaged; such as after exposure to smoke, air pollution, or chemical fumes and dust. As emphysema gets worse, the walls of the air sacs weaken and rupture, creating larger air spaces inside the lungs. Having larger air spaces means the lungs have less opportunity to take up oxygen and therefore less oxygen enters the blood stream. The damaged air sacs also make it harder for the lungs to cycle out old, oxygen-depleted air for new, oxygen-rich air. Despite emphysema’s broad prevalence and severe outcomes, current treatment methods target symptom relief – not prevention or reversal of the disease itself.

Smoke inhalation, one of the primary causes of emphysema, has been shown to cause a decrease in the expression of a particular protein that is enriched in the lungs: HIF-2α. HIF proteins are known to be involved in oxygen processing both in low-oxygen environments, where they trigger the expression of genes that improve oxygen uptake efficiency, as well as in normal oxygen environments, where they help maintain air sac architecture and promote cell survival. Given the facts that 1) smoke inhalation triggers a decrease in HIF-2α, and 2) HIF-2α has a known important role in oxygen processing and maintaining lung air sac architecture, a group of scientists including first author Shravani Pasupneti, MD, senior authors, Xinguo Jiang, MD, PHD and Mark Nicolls, MD of Stanford University and Nobel-Laureate Gregg Semenza, MD, PhD of Johns Hopkins, chose to investigate whether changes in HIF-2α levels could be directly responsible for emphysema.

In their study, recently published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, the authors used genetic manipulations to both decrease and increase HIF-2α levels. When they decreased HIF-2α levels in mice, they were able to recreate the lung pathology of emphysema (e.g. air sac enlargement). They also showed that this effect was specific to HIF-2α, because decreasing levels of a similar protein, HIF1α, did not cause lung-related dysfunction. Not only did they show that lack of HIF-2α causes emphysema, but they also demonstrated that the presence of HIF-2α is actually protective. Increasing levels of HIF-2α in mice prevented the animals from the pathological air sac enlargement and cell death that is typical in emphysema. Combined, Pasupneti et al’s results show that loss of HIF-2α function could be directly responsible for the symptoms seen in individuals with emphysema. Identifying ways to preserve HIF-2α function is therefore a promising opportunity for therapies that would limit emphysema progression – or even prevent emphysema in at-risk patients.

An editorial of this study by Emma Hodson MD, PHD and 2019 Nobel-laureate Peter Ratcliffe, MD was published alongside this manuscript and provides further context for the authors’ results.

Other Stanford Cardiovascular Institute-affiliated authors include Wen Tian, Allen B. Tu, Petra Dahms, Eric Granucci, Menglan Xiang, and Eugene Butcher.

July 29, 2020

Congrats to Angela Rogers and her Stanford team including first author Jenny Wilson (ED/CCM), Joe Levitt, Catherine Blish (ID) and Holden Maecker (Stanford Human Immune Monitoring Center) - for a new paper in JCI Insight showing that the inflammatory cytokine profiles are similar in severe COVID-19, ARDS and sepsis. The failure of Phase 3 studies using immunosuppressive therapies targeting specific cytokines could be explained by these results. https://insight.jci.org/articles/view/140289

This paper is an important contribution to the COVID-19 literature on inflammation and can be considered alongside a new foundational study published in the journal Nature which considers how a  maladapted immune response associates with severe COVID-19 outcomes and how early immune signatures may correlate with divergent disease trajectories.  https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2588-y  

These new studies are progressively informing clinical researchers on best approaches for therapeutic drug design in the pandemic.

Another great example of how interdisciplinary research can work so well at Stanford!

June 26, 2020

The Stanford PCCM and CCM Fellows from the graduating Class of 2020 have jointly come together to support disadvantaged populations who have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic. 

The fellows have banded together to support organizations taking action against racism and to empower young people of color in poor communities. We are so proud and humbled by their leadership on this paramount social issue. We know that they are immensely talented individuals, and we have confidence that they will be launching their careers with strong hearts, noble minds and great promise. 

For more information about their effort and an opportunity to financially contribute, please go to this link.

June 24, 2020

Congratulations to Andrew Sweatt MD, new recipient of an NIH K23 Award! Dr. Sweatt is a Clinical Assistant Professor with expertise in pulmonary hypertension. 

He recently authored an already highly-cited Circulation Research study which effectively illustrates how machine-learning approaches can be used to organize complicated data sets (in this case, inflammatory biomarkers) to classify pulmonary hypertension phenotypes in an unprecedented manner. By using artificial intelligence methodologies, new discoveries are rapidly being made, and Stanford, a pioneering site for the development of this field, has been a wonderful launching pad for Andy's career.

For this training award, Dr. Roham Zamanian will be serving as his Mentor. Obtaining a K-award is an important early step for faculty developing research careers. Challenging to obtain and a true rite of passage.

June 23, 2020

Please congratulate and give a warm welcome to Maya Kasowski MD, PhD who will be joining us on July 1st as the new Sean N. Parker Faculty Scholar and Assistant Professor in the Sean N. Parker Center for Allergy and Asthma Research, Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care and with secondary appointment in Dept of Pathology and courtesy appointment in Dept of Genetics.   Dr. Kasowski has published in Science, Cell, and Nature, and other high impact journals and will lead her laboratory in the BMI building. Dr. Kasowski is a  clinical pathologist and genomicist joining our Center to study allergic disorders. Dr. Kasowski will work with biospecimens from our clinical trials to investigate links between genetic variants and immune responses in patients undergoing oral immunotherapy.

Maya earned her MD from Yale University School of Medicine and her PhD from Yale University. Her PhD was in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology in Dr. Michael Snyder's lab. She completed her residency in pathology and her post-doctoral fellowship in genetics, both at Stanford University. She recently received a KL2 Mentored Career Development Award for two years of research funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Stanford Clinical Translational Science Award (CTSA) Program. Dr. Kasowski is assistant director of the Molecular Pathology Core, a laboratory in pathology dedicated to translating scientific discovery at Stanford into new clinical tests.

Maya grew up on a horse farm in the Philadelphia area and when she's not in the lab enjoys going for hikes with her three young children. 

June 22, 2020

We are proud to announce three MICU attendings who will form the PACCM representation for the newly-formed Yellow Team. The three new MICU attendings are:

1. Pedram Fatehi (Nephrology/PACCM)
2. Harmeet Bedi (PACCM)
3. Andrea Jonas (PACCM)

The Yellow Team is an attending-only service (no residents or fellows yet) that is being created in response to rising MICU patient volumes. We expect that, in time, it will become a fully-staffed group like the Blue and Green Teams.

In PACCM, we have >15 critically-care boarded MDs to consider. Arthur Sung and I rated a number of parameters and arrived at the same three individuals. We appreciate that these are highly-sought after positions and took quite a bit of care with this process. We turned to Paul Mohabir who enthusiastically agreed with the lineup. Paul has been instrumental in working with the Departments of Anesthesia and Emergency Medicine to design the newly-minted Yellow Team. 

Pedram Fatehi (https://profiles.stanford.edu/pedram-fatehi) has been a fixture in the Stanford Critical Care world for many years. After Medicine/Nephrology training at Columbia and CCM fellowship at UCSF, he was on faculty at UCSF and in critical care practice for five years before joining the Stanford faculty in 2014. His dedication to intensive care unit has been inspiring. Since 2017, he has served on the Stanford ICU Professional Practice Evaluation Committee and the Stanford ICU Continuing Quality Improvement Committee. An avid educator, Pedram has won the Nephrology Teaching Award for the past two years. He is an amazing doctor, a passionate academic and warm colleague with a secondary appointment in our Division.

Harmeet Bedi (https://profiles.stanford.edu/harmeet-bedi) is a beloved clinical educator (Winner of the 2018 PACCM Teaching Award), skilled interventional pulmonologist and intensivist. He also won the Mentorship Award for the Stanford Biodesign Fellowship Program two years in a row (2017 and 2018). He is an exceedingly well-trained proceduralist and clinician who already has a strong working relationship with our colleagues in Cardiovascular Anesthesia.

Andrea Jonas (https://profiles.stanford.edu/199287) is a graduating Chief PACCM fellow who has already distinguished herself as an emerging leader. A graduate of Harvard (Chemistry and Physics), followed by medical school and IM residency at Johns Hopkins where she developed a strong interest in critical care medicine. She is already signed up for Valley Care MICU service, which, like the Yellow Team, is an attending-only service. She is becoming the new Associate Program Director of the PCCM Fellowship in the 2020-2021 academic year, joining Angela Rogers as the new PCCM Fellowship Program Director.  Andrea has a special interest in Palliative Care and ICU Survival Cohorts.

We feel honored and proud to have such distinguished individuals in our midst.

May 22, 2020

This is a note of congratulations to Vinicio de Jesus Perez, Ken Mahaffey, and Roham Zamanian! 

The American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine (our field's flagship journal, now with an IF of 16.5) published their fascinating case report detailing the outpatient management of a patient with concomitant idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension (iPAH) and COVID-19 disease using inhaled nitric oxide (iNO). https://www-atsjournals-org.laneproxy.stanford.edu/doi/abs/10.1164/rccm.202004-0937LE

The journal has been flooded with hundreds of COVID-19 manuscript submissions  - raising the question about why this particular report 'made the cut'.  In an accompanying Editorial, which came online today, international  PAH authority, Mark Gladwin M.D., described the potential ramifications of the study - that this report confirms the rationale of iNO as a therapeutic agent for COVID-19 patients. https://www.atsjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1164/rccm.202005-1906ED.  

To this end, Roham is now leading a multicenter trial, a randomized open-label study of supportive therapy with or without iNO in COVID-19 patients (the COVIDiNO Study). A great example of how we can use a single interesting case report to build a theory of disease. Congrats again to Vinicio, Ken, and Roham for their efforts in this challenging and internationally-focused arena!

May 20, 2020

A big contratulations to our new T32 Training Grant Recipients! 

David Condon will be working under Vinicio de Jesus Perez, and Ian Lee will be training under Purvesh Khatri: two fantastic mentors!

April 29, 2020

We want to give a tremendous shout-out and congratulations to our chief fellow, Dr. Andrea Jonas. As part of her work with  Clinical Excellence Research Center this year, she co-authored a perspectives piece published in the NEJM, entitled " Covid-19 and Health Care’s Digital Revolution" .  https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2005835?query=RP

April 28, 2020

A big congratulations to Dr. Nicolls and Dr. Nadeau for their election into the Association of American Physicians!

From the AAP site:  "The Association of American Physicians is a nonprofit, professional organization founded in 1885 by seven physicians, including Dr. William Osler and Dr. William Henry Welch, for “the advancement of scientific and practical medicine. "

"The goals of its members include the pursuit of medical knowledge, and the advancement through experimentation and discovery of basic and clinical science and their application to clinical medicine. Each year, individuals having attained excellence in achieving these goals, are recognized by nomination for membership by the Council of the Association. Their election gives them the opportunity to share their scientific discoveries and contributions with their colleagues at the annual meeting."

Dr. Nadeau was nominated by George Q. Daley, Dean of Harvard Medical School, and Dr. Nicolls, by Gregg Semenza, Professor of Genetic Medicine and winner of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

The AAP is known as the "Old Turks" to be compared with the "Young Turks" of the American Society of Clinical Investigation (ASCI) which was founded in 1908. As we previously announced, Tushar Desai and Vinicio de Jesus Perez were elected into ASCI this year - so all round, a banner year for PACCM!

April 17, 2020

There is so much work going on at the bedside and in the research arena to address our world-wide pandemic at Stanford. Our own Ryan Van Wert M.D., the Associate Director of the Biodesign Faculty Fellowship who was instrumental in the development of a prototype for a new scaled-down ventilator with the support of the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub.

https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2020/04/building-simplified-ventilators.html

The aim of this project is to replenish ventilator supplies by building simplified, streamlined versions of the machines that require fewer parts and ​less time to make. This effort can help U.S. areas in need as well as under-served nations during the planet's time of need. 

Great innovation and leadership, Ryan! We are always proud of your accomplishments and the great care which you provide our patients.

April 9, 2020

A big shout out to Angela Rogers (Senior Author), PACCM alumnus Kelly Vranas/Cardiology Fellow David Ouyong (Co-1st-authors) and super-mentor Michael Matthay (UCSF) on a likely-to-be-highly-cited-study in the April 1st issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. 

As noted in the article "gender gaps exist in academic leadership positions and scholarly activities in critical care. Publication of peer-reviewed research is crucial to career advancement, and yet little is known about gender differences in authorship of critical care research." 

"This study found that among more than 18,000 critical care clinical research and basic science studies published in 40 frequently cited journals between 2008 and 2018, women comprised 30.8% of first authors and 19.5% of senior authors, with minimal change over the last decade. When the senior author was female, the odds of female co-authorship rose substantially. However, compared with male first authors, female first authors tend to publish in lower-impact journals. These findings suggest factors that may contribute to the under-representation of women in academic leadership positions and scholarly activity in critical care, and they may help identify potential targets for improvement within the field"

This study is a clarion call for attention to the issue and reform.

Here is a link to the Blue Journal Study https://www.atsjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1164/rccm.201910-1957OC

Congratulations to Angela, Kelly, David, Michael and their talented team of co-authors for an important study in the field!

March 31, 2020

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Dr. Chitra Dinakar, the Clinical Chief of Allergy, Asthma and Immunodeficiency in the PACCM Division. Chitra was a respected allergist,  dedicated investigator, cherished mentor, beloved wife and treasured mother to two talented sons. She was the recipient of numerous awards that acknowledged her significant contributions to research, patient care and education. Earlier this month, we learned that Dr. Dinakar would be the recipient of The President’s Award from the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology for her "significant contributions to the field of Allergy and Immunology as a clinician, a teacher, an author and as a role model for many AAAAI members.” 

A more tangible symbol of Chitra's final months was the establishment of the The Stanford Adult Allergy, Immunodeficiency and Asthma Clinic which opened its doors in September of 2019; for this new enterprise, she recruited two skilled allergists, Priscilla Wong and Anna Arroyo, and guided them through the early months of the clinic's inception. While we are so proud of these accomplishments, it will be her warm and vibrant personality that we will remember most fondly.

Dr. Dinakar’s husband, Deendayal Dinakarpandian, is a data scientist with BMIR and we extend him, their sons, and all of Dr. Dinakar’s family and friends our deepest sympathy.

A private funeral service is being held because of the pandemic. People are welcome to leave comments at the following website: https://www.funeralcremation.com/obituary/chitra-dinakar

March 14, 2020

We are thrilled to announce that Dr. Yon Sung has won the 2020 Teaching Award for the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine.  

As most of you know, Yon is an amazing clinician and a dedicated educator with special expertise in pulmonary hypertension.

A graduate of Pittsburgh Medical School, Yon did her IM residency at Brown before coming to Stanford for pulmonary training. With Roham Zamanian, she is our main right heart catheterization expert.

The consummate doctor, patient advocate and good-natured colleague, we are very proud of all the great work that Dr. Sung does at Stanford.

March 13, 2020

Congratulations to Dr. Chitra Dinakar,  recipient of The President’s Award from the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology for her "significant contributions to the field of Allergy and Immunology as a clinician, a teacher, an author and as a role model for many AAAAI members.” 

(The award was scheduled to be announced at the Past Presidents & Honorary Award Recipients Luncheon in Philadelphia during the AAAAI Annual Meeting this month but is cancelled due to COVID-19.)

We are super proud of all the great accomplishments achieved by Chitra and send our good wishes to her with this happy announcement!

March 3, 2020

Congratulations to Dr. Kristina Kudelko who has been appointed as the PACCM Director of Clinical Educator Career Development and CE Track Fellows Curriculum, effective immediately. In this role, Kristina will devote her efforts to strengthen the CE faculty and fellows career pathways in an academic environment. 

It is widely recognized that Dr. Joe Levitt and Dr. Angela Rogers, our leaders in fellowship training, as well as our UTL faculty, have done an amazing job to solidify the scientific and research successes of our fellows. This is evident with the consistent NIH fellowship awards and the number of fellows committing to research careers year after year.  Likewise, Kristina will work with the clinically focused faculty to ensure their successes within Stanford, as well as preparing clinically aspiring fellows for careers in any academic institutions. With this appointment, we are excited and confident that our division will fulfill the core triple missions: research, teaching and clinical care.

Kristina completed her medical education at University of Pennsylvania, and residency/fellowship in PCCM at New York Presbyterian Hospital- Cornell. She completed the pulmonary hypertension fellowship at Stanford, and in 2010 joined the faculty of the division.

Kristina has been a stalwart of clinical teaching to trainees both in pulmonary hypertension and pulmonary consultative service. She is also a key leader responsible for educational curriculum of the PH fellowship.

Please join us in congratulating Kristina, and we look forward to the successes of this important initiative. 

February 26, 2020

Tipping Point: The Resistance Is Gaining In The Lyme Wars, a Forbes article involving the latest research being done on Lyme disease by scientists, physicians and patient advocates all over the world, including our PACCM faculty member, Dr. Jayakumar Rajadas.

February 25, 2020

Congratulations to Dr. Arthur Sung, the new Senior Associate Chief for the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine.  

Since returning to Stanford a few years ago to lead the new Interventional Pulmonary Program (now the busiest on the West Coast), Arthur's effect on the division has been absolutely transformational. 

Because of his early leadership skills, he became the Associate Chief of Innovation and Strategy. In this role, he has been remarkable about putting the interests of others ahead of his own in developing their careers, especially junior faculty. He also brings a broad vision for how we can grow to be a leading division in the country by expanding our academic programs and clinical opportunities around the Bay Area.  

January 17, 2020

A big congratulations to Dr. Sharon (Rebecca) Chinthrajah, who was selected as one of the top clinical research projects by The Clinical Research Forum for her study, “Sustained outcomes in oral immunotherapy for peanut allergy (POISED study): a large, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase 2 study,”  This study was chosen from an impressive field of applications and extremely qualified research programs. She was nominated by Dean Minor.

The award includes a presentation at the Translational Science 2020 conference in Washington DC in April, involves meetings with congressional offices at the annual “Hill Day” to promote the importance of funding for clinical research, and includes a travel award and formal recognition at the National Press Club in Washington D.C.

This is an important honor. We are proud of you, Sharon!

January 6, 2020

PACCM is very proud to announce that Dr. Vinicio de Jesus Perez and Dr. Tushar Desai were both elected into the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI). The ASCI is an honor society of 3,000 physician-scientists from all medical fields. ASCI members are elected before their 50th birthday, and must demonstrate outstanding records of scholarly achievement in biomedical research. It is a signal achievement in the life of a physician-scientist. 

Some facts from Wikipedia:

"The American Society for Clinical Investigation has its origins in a chance meeting in June 1907 on the Atlantic City boardwalk. The organization was also known as the "Young Turks" in allusion to the rebellious spirit in which it was founded, as a counterweight to the older and more deeply established Association of American Physicians (colloquially known as the "Old Turks" in subsequent years)."

"The ASCI includes physician-scientists who are active clinically, in basic research, or in teaching. Many of its senior members are widely recognized leaders in academic medicine. As of 2015 the membership of ASCI has included 417 members of the National Academy of Medicine, 191 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 40 Lasker Award winners, and 19 Nobel laureates."

"The ASCI supports the research into basic mechanisms and/or treatment of human diseases, and to the education of future generations of physician-scientists. The ASCI considers the nominations of several hundred physician-scientists from the United States and abroad each year and elects up to 80 new members each year for their significant research accomplishments relatively early in their careers."

We are very proud of you, Vinicio and Tushar!

December 20, 2019

Congratulations to Dr. Sharon (Rebecca) Chinthrajah! The Clinical Research Forum has selected her as a finalist for the 2020 Top 10 Clinical Research Achievement Awards for her study “Sustained outcomes in oral immunotherapy for peanut allergy (POISED study): a large, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase 2 study”.

This nomination is a Top 20 nominated study, which is to say that this work was among the very best of a very large and competitive field of submitted articles. It is a high honor and a remarkable accomplishment, given the level of quality, scientific rigor and innovation in this year’s batch of nominated studies. The final decision about the studies receiving the Top Ten Awards, and be honored at the Top Ten event in Washington, D.C., will be made in January.

November 20, 2019

Please join PACCM in congratulating Dr. Ke Yuan who has been promoted to Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Boston's Children's Hospital starting December 1, 2019.  The Boston Children's hospital is the nation's #1 pediatric hospital and one of the top research programs in cardiopulmonary disorders in the world.  Ke will join Harvard faculty as a tenure track translational investigator whose work will center on understanding the role of pericytes in the establishment of pulmonary muscularization associated with congenital heart disease associated PH.  

October 18, 2019

We want to announce two big changes at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center: the retirement of Division Chief Dr. Carl Kirsch and the promotion of his replacement, Dr. Eric Hsiao.  Since 1986, Carl has been a beloved teacher and an admired clinician to medical students, residents and fellows.  Eric Hsiao is already well known to our pulmonary group at Stanford; we all look forward to his leading the next generation of lung physicians at the Valley. His new role as Division Chief at SCVMC is effective October 21, 2019. The pulmonary and critical care experience enjoyed by our trainees at the Valley is consistently considered among the very best experiences of the whole fellowship. 

Congratulations to Drs. Carl Kirsch and Eric Hsiao!

October 15, 2019

"It is with great pleasure that we announce Dr. Meghan Ramsey will be a new MICU attending at Stanford Hospital. Meghan has long been passionate about the ICU. A Stanford IM Chief Resident, we were thrilled to recruit her into our group. She dedicated her third year of her PCCM fellowship to focus on ICU care delivery with CERC.  Her teaching style, fellow advocacy, ability to work well with teams, clinical acumen, interest in quality improvement, and leadership skills will undoubtedly serve her well in her new role.

October 14, 2019

"From Scopus https://scopeblog.stanford.edu/2019/10/08/nobel-prize-science-with-stanford-twist-is-improving-lung-transplants/'

Early Monday morning, the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to three scientists who discovered how cells detect and respond to changes in oxygen levels.

There's a nice Stanford link to this prize: New Nobel laureate Gregg Semenza, MD, PhD, of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, is collaborating with Stanford's Mark Nicolls, MD, on a way to use Semenza's prizewinning discovery to help lung transplant recipients.

"I was up at 5:30 a.m. emailing and congratulating Gregg," said Nicolls, describing his reaction to the Nobel Prize announcement. "I was absolutely thrilled. It was well deserved."

Lung transplants do not last as long as other solid-organ transplants, with only about half of recipients alive after five years. But a piece of research that evolved from the Nobel Prize discovery may help to change that.

Semenza's portion of the award recognized the discovery of HIF-1 alpha, a protein that switches genes on and off in response to low oxygen levels. This protein and its sister molecule, HIF-2 alpha, play important roles in maintaining the health of blood vessels. Loss of healthy blood vessels is a big contributor to failure of lung transplants.

Starting in 2011, Nicolls, a pulmonologist, and his Stanford team began publishing research with Semenza in which they increased HIF-1 alpha and HIF-2 alpha levels in animal models of lung transplant. When these proteins were more plentiful, the transplanted organs were healthier and lasted longer.

From that work, they've devised and patented a medication to turn up HIF-1 alpha levels. "It's a fluid that surgeons will apply to the transplanted lungs at the time of the operation to enhance natural blood vessel repair," Nicolls said. The treatment is in the process of being brought to market.

Nicolls and Semenza are figuring out how to apply the same principles to chronic lung transplant rejection.

"Lung transplant rejection is like a heart attack of the airways: You lose blood supply and get a scar, which turns into chronic rejection," Nicolls said, adding that chronic rejection is the No. 1 killer of lung transplant recipients. But turning up the HIF proteins can slow or reverse the process.

Semenza has been an important mentor and collaborator, Nicolls said, adding "He's a very generous but very careful and rigorous scientist."

And their findings illustrate the value of basic science, driven by curiosity rather than a particular goal. When Semenza first discovered HIF-1 alpha, he could not have guessed that the work might someday lead to longer-lasting lung transplants.

"When you learn how cells operate, the lessons can have very broad implications that only become apparent as years and decades go by," Nicolls said.