We offer comprehensive and individualized care for adult patients with a broad array of lung diseases, critical illness and sleep disorders. Our specialized programs and services include:
Pulmonary hypertension and advanced lung disease/interstitial lung disease
Our faculty and staff have specialized expertise in pulmonary hypertension and interstitial lung disease. We work closely with referring physicians to provide comprehensive diagnostic and therapeutic services for these complex pulmonary conditions. Our clinical research in this area has made many contributions to patient care and is based on our extensive database spanning over 20 years of clinical experience.
Beth and Jay Thalheim Clinical Airway Research Center
The Center provides highly specialized diagnosis and management for people with all types of airway disease, including asthma, bronchiectasis and COPD. Clinical research performed at the Center focuses on innovative new treatments for diseases of the airways.
The Jack Gorvoy Cystic Fibrosis Center
Our Center is the oldest and largest cystic fibrosis (CF) center in the New York metropolitan area and is accredited by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. The adult section is the only accredited adult CF center serving Brooklyn, Queensand Nassau and Suffolk counties. The Center’s philosophy is that CF is a lifelong problem and that the best outcomes are achieved when care is continually provided by a team of expert caregivers.The Center is part of the CF Foundation Therapeutics Development Network (the largest CF clinical trials network in the world), participating in CF clinical trials assessing new therapies. A recipient of several quality-improvement grants, the Center is a leader in care innovation, offering the first inpatient medication self-administration option to people with CF.
Non-tuberculous mycobacterial diseases and bronchiectasis
The rising incidence of non-tuberculous mycobacterial (NTM) pulmonary infections has led to the development of our multidisciplinary service for the management of NTM disease. The center comprisesexpert clinicians in pulmonary medicine, infectious disease and allergy and clinical immunology.
Critical care medicine
We are nationally and internationally recognized leaders in innovation in critical care medicine. Our faculty pioneered point-of-care ultrasound, critical care echocardiography and trans-esophageal echocardiography—noninvasive diagnostic modalities that have transformed the practice of critical care medicine—and we have published extensively on these methodologies. Our division provides leadership and staffs the Medical Intensive Care Units at Northwell tertiary and community hospitals, and partners with the Northwell Electronic ICU Service (eICU), a telemedicine service, to provide expert monitoring of Northwell critical care units.
Acute Lung Injury and Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation Program (ECMO)
This program is a joint effort between the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, the Department of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery and the Northwell eICU.The program provides advanced care for the management of acute lung injury and ARDS and provides the option of ECMO. The Northwell eICU is an essential component of the program, enhancing best practice for ALI/ARDS management and identifying patients who may benefit from the program at Northwell critical care units and surrounding hospitals.
Northwell Health Sleep Disorders Center
The Northwell Health Sleep Disorders Center at North Shore University Hospital is the first center on Long Island to offer hypoglossal nerve stimulation therapy for obstructive sleep apnea. This novel program, offered in conjunction with the Northwell Health Department of Otolaryngology, provides a new therapeutic modality for sleep apnea patients who are intolerant of standard therapies.
The Center’s multidisciplinary team is made up of physicians and psychologists who are board certified in sleep medicine, as well as polysomnographic technologists and respiratory therapists dedicated to the diagnosis and long-term management of sleep disorders. The Center also draws on the considerable resources of Northwell, with consultants providing coordinated care in otolaryngology, dentistry, maxillofacial surgery, psychiatry and neurology. The faculty at the Center has recognized clinical expertise in the diagnosis and treatment of disorders affecting sleep; they are also highly regarded for education and clinical research in sleep medicine.
The Center is fully accredited by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, ensuring that it meets the highest standards for delivery of care. Equipped with the latest diagnostic and therapeutic technology, the laboratory uses both in-laboratory polysomnographic testing as well as home testing and treatment modalities when appropriate.
Interventional Pulmonology Center
Minimally invasive techniques for diagnosis and treatment of pulmonary diseases are on the rise with advances in the technology of interventional pulmonary medicine. Procedures performed by the specially trained physicians of our division’s Interventional Pulmonology Center include:
- Conventional bronchoscopy
- Navigational bronchoscopy (CT scans integrated into the procedure permit localization and biopsy of small peripheral lung nodules)
- Endobronchial ultrasound (using ultrasound to assess and sample lymph nodes adjacent to the airways of the lung, this method is state-of-the-art for staging lung cancer)
- Medical pleuroscopy (this minimally invasive outpatient procedure assesses and treats pleural effusions)
- Indwelling pleural catheters
Pulmonary rehabilitation
Pulmonary rehabilitation is one of the most useful therapeutic modalities for chronic lung disease such as COPD, improving quality of life and reducing hospital readmissions. Its goal is to increase patient independence, functional status and quality of life. Our faculty provides leadership for this program and performs patient assessments prior to participation. Each patient is provided with a personalized exercise regimen and supported in adapting activities of daily living, reducing fatigue and addressing health-related quality-of-life issues. Groups are small to maximize personal attention.
The pulmonary rehabilitation team includes respiratory therapists, registered nurses, registered dietitians, physical therapists, social workers and exercise physiologists. In 2016, a division faculty member, Negin Haji*zadeh, MD, was awarded a Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) grant to establish a telemedicine-based pulmonary rehabilitation program. This unique program will test the feasibility and impact of a new mode of delivery of pulmonary rehabilitation services.
Pulmonary Function Laboratory
The laboratory performs complete pulmonary function testing, as well as specialized advanced studies such as cardiopulmonary exercise testing and bronchial challenge testing. The laboratory is staffed by dedicated respiratory therapists skilled in pulmonary physiology assessment. Under the guidance of the medical director, the laboratory also serves as an educational resource for pulmonary physiology training for medical students, residents and pulmonary medicine fellows, as well as respiratory therapy students.
Respiratory Care Units
Division faculty designed and implemented clinical inpatient units at North Shore University Hospital and Long Island Jewish Medical Center for the care of patients with primary pulmonary disorders. These innovative Respiratory Care Units (RCUs) aim to enhance the quality and efficiency of care for inpatients with COPD, pneumonia, asthma, chronic respiratory failure requiring ventilatory support and other respiratory disorders. In addition to enhancing inpatient care, the unit aims to facilitate transitions of care to and from the ambulatory setting. The multidisciplinary care coordination team includes pulmonary faculty, dedicated nurse practitioners, respiratory therapists and case managers. The work of RCU faculty and staff has significantly reduced average length of stay and enhanced the quality of care.
