Patient care, as well as clinical and research training activities, are supervised by a faculty composed of 12 full-time and three volunteer staff members. The Pulmonary Medicine Service includes the inpatient ward and consultation service, the Pulmonary Outpatient Clinic, the Pulmonary Function Laboratory and the Endoscopy Laboratory. The Pulmonary Medicine Service offers one month elective rotations to residents. This elective focuses primarily on inpatient consultation with a one half day per week commitment to outpatient pulmonary medicine. The major objective is for the resident to acquire the skills necessary to perform proper consultative evaluations and to formulate appropriate management plans in patients with pulmonary diseases.
Educational emphasis is placed on proper interpretation of x-rays and pulmonary function tests.
Proper techniques of thoracentesis and pleural biopsy also are taught during the rotation. The Critical Care Medicine Service is responsible for patient care and house staff training in the multidisciplinary aspects of critical care medicine. Full-time attendings in the division make rounds seven days a week and assume administrative responsibility for the unit. Research opportunities are available in any one of a number of laboratories that engage in ongoing investigations at both the clinical and basic science level. The division is involved in multidisciplinary research in numerous areas, including asthma, airway hyperactivity, airway inflammation, acute lung injury, adult respiratory distress syndrome, lung defense mechanisms, mediators of pulmonary inflammation, pulmonary hypersensitivity diseases and sarcoidosis.