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Research

Faculty members in the Division of Pulmonary Diseases and Critical Care Medicine are nationally and internationally known for their research in interventional pulmonary medicine and critical care.

Our researchers aspire to stimulate new ideas, identify needed areas of inquiry and to ensure that academic findings result in improved services for patients with lung disease. They also aim to train a new generation of skilled physician-researchers to continue to advance pulmonary and critical care medicine.

Research areas include:
  • Studies of hemorrhagic shock and resuscitation using advanced prototype noninvasive optical technologies capable of assessing tissue perfusion, as well as cytochrome oxidation states;
  • Development of diagnostic and therapeutic agents for treatment of mass casualty cyanide poisoning;
  • Early detection of smoke-induced airway injury using three-dimensional, swept-source optical coherence tomography;
  • High-resolution optical in vivo airway cancer diagnostics
  • Interactive effects of acute high-dose corticosteroid and mechanical ventilation on diaphragm contractile properties;
  • Interventional pulmonary procedure methods, outcomes and mechanisms of response;
  • Education-based research on validation of new approaches to teaching procedural based pulmonary programs.

The division receives significant research funding, primarily from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs merit program, the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Defense. We have a number of clinical research projects relating to interventional pulmonary medicine and new methods for teaching physicians interventional procedures. We also have an active sleep lab program for research and clinical care at the VA Long Beach Healthcare System.

Division researchers also collaborate with investigators at the UCI Health Beckman Laser Institute & Medical Clinic on new technologies and therapies for a variety of pulmonary diseases and critical care disorders. This gives our pulmonary and critical care clinicians and researchers — and our fellows — access to the most advanced laser technologies.