When I was a medical student at Columbia and a resident in New York at Babies Hospital, I was always interested in pulmonary physiology and how the lungs work. When I became more familiar with patients with problems with pulmonary diseases, it was a natural extension of my interest in how the lungs work and what happened when things went wrong. Equally important in my decision to go into pulmonary medicine was that it's an opportunity to care for patients with a number of chronic diseases, one of which is cystic fibrosis. I find it very rewarding to be involved in the care of children with chronic respiratory problems. You build up wonderful long-term relationships with patients and families.
Pulmonary medicine is a very diversified field.
When we take care of children with chronic illnesses, and especially cystic fibrosis, many children have complications not limited to the lungs. They can have renal complications, they can have cardiac complications, or nutritional complications. There have been huge changes over the years. My whole approach of how I talk to a newly diagnosed family has changed. The average lifespan now is more than 30 years.