On March 29, the division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine held its third annual Pulmonary Academic Day, an opportunity for cross-divisional, cross-departmental, and cross-campus collaboration for faculty, trainees, and postdoctoral fellows across the Weill Cornell Medicine community. Faculty shared investigative interactions, showcased emerging research, and engaged in lively forums to discuss exciting findings within the field of pulmonary, sleep and critical care medicine.
The day-long event opened with remarks from Division Chief Dr. Fernando J. Martinez, Dean Robert Harrington and Dr. John Leonard, Interim Chair of the Weill Department of Medicine. All three took note of the division’s extraordinary growth in recent years, a reflection of the enormous growth throughout Weill Cornell Medicine. The division’s faculty has grown from 39 faculty in 2017 to nearly 60 this year. In line with the division’s support of junior investigators, K awardees have increased from 1 to 12 since 2017, with three obtaining independent R01 funding. Invited speaker Dr. Gustavo Matute-Bello, Deputy Director of the Division of Lung Diseases at the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), delivered a plenary lecture highlighting a history of recent NHLBI investigative and educational endeavors. He highlighted the challenge of the current fiscal climate but also the NHLBI commitment to support junior investigators and expand innovative and impactful science.
The strength of numerous robust multidisciplinary clinical and investigative efforts were also highlighted. This included the post-ICU recovery, Bronchoscopic Lung Valve Reduction (BLVR), Nontuberculous mycobacterium/bronchiectasis, and ICU palliative care programs that have developed. The Interstitial lung disease (ILD) program has rapidly expanded both clinically and investigatively across the campuses. The Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) program has achieved coveted COPD 360 designation while the ILD program has become a showcase of the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation Care Network. The interventional pulmonary program has expanded in collaboration with thoracic surgery. An innovative interaction with the NewYork–Presbyterian Hospital Lung Transplant program, based at the Columbia campus, has been developed at the Brooklyn Methodist and Upper East Side campus.
Numerous faculty presented highly successful investigative programs across the spectrum of adult and pediatric pulmonary, sleep and critical care disorders. Highly innovative work defined novel immunological processes in asthma, promising therapeutic interventions in sleep disordered breathing, interventional procedures and lung transplantation. Key fundamental, translational, and clinical topics defined institutional strength in pulmonary lymphatics, COPD, ILD, critical care, infection, and the pulmonary vasculature. The largest and most successful poster session of the Pulmonary Academic Days incorporated the work of 27 investigators.
This highly successful forum highlighted the major advances in pulmonary, sleep and critical care across the entire Weill Cornell health system. It provided insights regarding the rapid advances in clinical care, education and mentoring, and groundbreaking science spanning the institution and its varied campuses.
From left, Drs. Kristin Berger, Di Pan, Kapil Rajwani, and Anthony Smith.