Division Overview

The Division of Pediatric Pulmonary and Sleep Medicine provides comprehensive care to infants, children and adults with a full spectrum of respiratory disorders. The division is committed to excellence and is nationally recognized for quality of patient care, education, research and advocacy. Care is guided in all age groups by the routine measurements of lung function, including pre-school age testing that is unique and unavailable at other pediatric centers.  Disease-specific programs driven by pulmonary faculty include the Duke Cystic Fibrosis Center, the Duke Asthma, Allergy and Airway Diseases Center and the Duke Pediatric Sleep-Disordered Breathing Program. Comprehensive multi-disciplinary care is provided by physicians, nurse practitioners, nutritionists, physical therapists and social workers. The transitional program to adult care in cystic fibrosis was one of the first in the nation.

 

The division provides teaching and training in pediatric pulmonology to medical students, residents and fellows and has conducted one of the Department of Pediatrics' annual post-graduate conferences, the Alexander Spock Symposium, for over thirty years. The fellowship training program, which is approved by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education and leads to certification by the Subboard on Pulmonology of the American Board of Pediatrics, is designed to train future leaders in academic pediatric pulmonology.  This training program consists of a year of clinical training and two years of either basic research or clinical/translational research.  A fourth year of research training is available by application.

 

Faculty and fellows of the division conduct a wide variety of basic and applied pulmonary research.  Past and current participation in clinical trials sponsored by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation has contributed to the establishment of current and future therapies.  Clinical outcomes research has documented the important contribution of alpha glucosidase infusions in improving lung function and prolonging the lives of infants with Pompe's disease.  Recent translational work focuses on the examination of the genesis of airway remodeling in asthma.  Basic research in the division is supported by five R01 research grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).  The focus of this research is on bronchial mucus, inflammation and regeneration of bronchial epithelial cells and the relationship of age and early allergic sensitization to long-term bronchial muscle spasms.  This basic research is important to patients with cystic fibrosis, asthma and other bronchial diseases.

 

The division is notably active locally, nationally, and internationally in its advocacy for pulmonary clinical, educational and research programs.