Program in Lung Healing

The Program in Lung Healing places the University of Maryland School of Medicine at the leading edge of research, education and clinical care for acute lung disease and respiratory failure.

With a multidisciplinary team of renowned physician-scientists, the program treats acute lung disease like a critical, time-sensitive Shock Trauma case, and conducts groundbreaking research to develop innovative treatments that will fundamentally change standard therapy.

To speak to a lung physician or to make an appointment:
Call: 1-800-373-4111

Within the program, physicians, nurses, technicians and research experts carry out pioneering research, and cutting edge clinical care focusing on preventing, arresting, and reversing lung disease and when necessary providing advanced lung support and replacement. The program is exploring the use of stem cell therapy, tissue engineering, personalized diagnostics, as well as new technology platforms being developed for artificial respiration.

The new Program brings together and leverages UM Medicine’s leadership in surgery, lung transplantation, critical care, trauma and pulmonary medicine with an emphasis on research and education.

“It is very exciting to see this vision come to fruition – where we have a multi-disciplinary approach, access to all of the tools, a proven model for critical care and a broad focus on research, education and clinical care all under the same umbrella.”

Thomas M. Scalea, MD, FACS, MCCM
The Honorable Francis X. Kelly Distinguished Professor in Trauma Surgery;
Director, Program in Trauma;
Physician-in-Chief for the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center

Part of the Program in Trauma, the Program in Lung Healing leverages the vast clinical and research expertise found throughout the University of Maryland School of Medicine, including the Department of Surgery and the Department of Medicine's Division of Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine. Faculty physicians will provide advanced pulmonary care at the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC), UMMC’s Midtown campus, as well as the Baltimore VA Medical Center. Learn More

The Global Burden of Lung Disease

Lung disease is the nation's third leading killer and affects all ages from neonates to the aged.
According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), COPD, or Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease is the third leading cause of death in the U.S.
More than 320,000 Americans are affected by acute respiratory failure each year, with COPD exacerbations, Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS), influenza, and progressive pulmonary fibrosis as the primary underlying cause.
The annual incidence of ARDS alone in the U.S. is 200,000 with more than 70,000 deaths each year.
Approximately 40,000 people die each year from pulmonary fibrosis - the same number of lives that are lost to breast cancer each year.
There is a critical shortage of suitable donor organs, only ½ of patients listed for a lung transplant will ever be transplanted. The Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network reported 1,654 candidates on the waiting list for a lung transplant. (May, 2014)
Chronic lung failure continues to lack mitigating, reversing or curative therapy.
Challenges to lung transplant include organ shortage, relatively short graft survival time, and side effects of immune suppression.
Chronic lung disease usually presents very late – need better screening, outreach, education.