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Newswise BALTIMORE, MD, February 5, 2015 University of Maryland School of Medicine (UM SOM) Dean E. Albert Reece, MD, PhD, MBA, and Jeffrey A. Rivest, MS, President and Chief Executive Officer of University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC), today announced the official launch of a new Program in Lung Healing, that will further the Schools position as a national leader in research, education and clinical innovation for acute ailments of the lung and respiratory system.

Program Integrates Leading Departments and Programs

The program integrates many of UM SOMs leading departments and programs, including the Department of Medicines Division of Pulmonary & Critical Care, under the leadership of Stephen N. Davis, MBBS, Jeffrey Hasday, MD, and Aldo Iacono, MD; the Department of Surgery under the leadership of Stephen Bartlett, MD, Richard N. Pierson III, MD, and Bartley P. Griffith, MD; and the Program in Traumas Critical Care Division under the leadership of Thomas M. Scalea, MD, Si M. Pham, MD, Jay Menaker, MD and Karen Doyle, MBA, MS, RN.

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. The NIH also reports that 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.

The Program in Lung Healing unifies and leverages our key assets and pioneering leadership in understanding how to treat the most critical patients with pulmonary failure, said Dr. Reece, who is Vice President for Medical Affairs at the University of Maryland and the John Z. and Akiko Bowers Distinguished Professor and Dean at the UM SOM. With our longstanding leadership in pulmonary medicine, trauma, transplantation and critical care, we are clearly establishing the University of Maryland Medicines pre-eminence in the area of vital organ preservation when the patients life is truly on the line.

Adds UMMCs Mr. Rivest: This new program is a great example of how we continue to invest in unique programs that ultimately will deliver the highest value for our critically-ill patients. By bringing together our unparalleled strengths in time-sensitive critical care medicine, we can maximize the potential outcome for our patients with the most severe cases of respiratory failure, he said.

Dr. Scalea, who is the Honorable Francis X. Kelly Distinguished Professor in Trauma Surgery, Director of the UM SOM Program in Trauma, and Physician-in-Chief for the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center, commented: We are fortunate to have some of the most talented and dedicated physicians and nurses in the country now mobilized under this new national program. 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 innovation all under the same umbrella.

Program to be Led by Leading Transplantation Surgeon

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University of Maryland Medicine Announces New National Program in Lung Healing to Develop Innovative Approaches for ...