Thanks for coming to meet our new PCCM, IP & Neph-crit fellow!
Second Years are enjoying their first week of not being continuous on service!
Pulmonary Jeopardy was a success! 
Thanks, Jason, for the snaps!
Category Archives: Announcements
Trachs 101 and Education Research Award!
Fantastic Core IM podcast on trach pearls featuring our very own Tim Rowe!
https://www.coreimpodcast.com/2023/03/08/trac/
Including this amazing figure to demystify trachs!
Source: https://twitter.com/COREIMpodcast/status/1633443908536483842
Congrats to Tim and Kaitlyn on the APCCMPD Education Research Award for the massive hemoptysis sim!
🎉 🎊 Congratulations to the 2023 award winners 🎉 🎊
🏆 Mid-career: @MirnaMohanraj
🏆 Emerging educators: @AvrahamCooperMD @vanholdenmd🏆 @APCCMPD @accpchest @atscommunity Education research award: Drs. Rose and Vitale #PCCMeded pic.twitter.com/CGcEpeVbp3
— APCCMPD (@APCCMPD) March 8, 2023
First year dinner with Program Leadership!
Last night our fearless leaders (Clara, Mac and Anthony) and program coordinator Kat (center of the picture and our world) got to spend the evening with our first year fellows (Jose, Emily, Allison, Ashley and Scott). First year keeps us busy and it’s not always easy to get time together, but it’s so nice to catch up as a group from time to time!
Welcome, visitors from Med Ed Day!
We are so excited that Med Ed Day is here!
Join us at 8:30 – Short Presentations – Session One – Baldwin Auditorium – as Dr. Rowe presents our preliminary data from the blog and highlights our experiences.
9:00 – Dr. Rowe will present at Eco-Normalization – Searle room
1:45 – Discussing Interactive Asynchronous Learning session – Baldwin Auditorium – a range of experiences with the modern digital age of medical education, including a piece about medical education blogging! Featuring also Dr. Angarone of our friend blog, bit.ly/nuidblog
We’re so glad you’re here, and are always excited to chat about our experience, hear your suggestions, or collaborate!
#NUPCCM Blog Team
Update – thanks to all who came out to support us, and for all of you visiting the blog for the first time after our presentation. We had a great time with the discussion and can’t wait to see the community continue to grow!
From left:
Mike Angarone, Mac Walter, Brianna Valdes, Tim Rowe, Tricia Pendergrast
Program Coordinator Spotlight: Kat Barnes!
Thank you for all you do, Kat!
Congratulations, Dr. Nandita Nadig!
Congratulations are in order for Dr. Nandita Nadig, MD, MSCR, who was recently awarded both the NUCATS Dixon Translational Research Grant and the Eleanor Wood-Prince Grant. The Dixon Grants fund “innovative, multi-disciplinary clinical and translational research collaborations…that can make an impact in medical science at a national level,” established after a $20 million pledge from Suzanne and Wesley Dixon, the largest contribution for a single program in hospital history. The Eleanor Wood-Prince Grant Initiatives are a project of The Women’s Board of Northwestern Medicine, and has awarded over $1.7 million to recipients since 2001.
As the Medical Director of Critical Care Integration, Dr. Nadig’s research and clinical interests have focused on reducing healthcare disparities in ICU transfers and right-sizing care using telehealth and regional outreach approaches. She was a 2019 Parker B. Francis fellow and has also recently been awarded the Diversity Grant from the American Thoracic Society for her project, “Inter-ICU Transfer Telehealth Tool (IITT)-Family Centered Care through Telehealth”.
We had the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Nadig on her recent accomplishments and advice she has for fellows and junior faculty. She described having found these opportunities on the NUCATS website, which “seemed to be a good fit and the right avenue to build a new team”. She feels like the often quoted, “success begets more success” oversimplifies reality, because “people who are successful have in fact participated more, have had more failures, more rejections, more experiential learning.” She encourages everyone to “persist, practice resilience, incorporate feedback and adapt as it will serve you well not only in your research but in your career!”
As she “look[s] forward to embedding healthcare equity principles while developing and implementing the vision for critical care integration,” we too look forward to seeing her work develop further and appreciate her guidance and mentorship!
Highlights from Gabby Liu’s BMJ State of the Art review on pulmonary fibrosis!
Amazing work by Gabby Liu (@gliunit, PCCM Fellowship Class of 2022) on this BMJ State of the Art Review: https://www.bmj.com/content/377/bmj-2021-066354
Advances in the management of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and progressive pulmonary fibrosis
Highlights from the review, kindly summarized for us by the author:
- Discusses the conceptualization and pathophysiology of progressive pulmonary fibrosis
- 2022 ATS/ERS/JRS/ALAT guidelines define how to identify progressive pulmonary fibrosis:
- ILD dx other than IPF
- Radiologic evidence of pulmonary fibrosis
- Evidence of progression, defined as meeting at least two of three criteria within the previous year with no alternative explanation:
- Absolute decline in FVC >/=5% predicted or absolute decline in DLCOc >/=10% predicted
- Worsening respiratory symptoms
- Radiologic evidence of progression
- Therapies in the pipeline for treatment of IPF, undergoing phase 3 clinical trials:
- Recombinant human pentraxin 2 – rhPTX
- Inhibits recruitment of monocyte derived alveolar macrophages to areas of fibrosis
- Pamrevlumab
- Anti-CTGF antibody
- CTGF mediates tissue remodeling, acting downstream of TGF-beta
- Inhaled treprostinil
- Prostacyclin analog approved for treatment of PAH and pHTN associated with ILD
- NAC among IPF patients with TOLLIP TT genotype
- Tripeptide precursor of glutathione that has antioxidant effects
- Recombinant human pentraxin 2 – rhPTX
- Treatment of inflammatory ILDs:
- Only RCT data supporting immunosuppression comes from studies of patients with SSc-ILD
- Tocilizumab is the only immunosuppressive drug approved by FDA for treatment of SSc-ILD
- Based on FaSScinate and focuSSced trials
- Cyclophosphamide (CYC) and MMF are not approved by FDA for treatment of SSc-ILD but use is supported by Scleroderma Lung Studies I and II
- SLS I : CYC reduced decline in FVC compared to placebo
- SLS II: MMF non-inferior to CYC
- Treatment of progressive pulmonary fibrosis:
- Nintedanib, supported by 2 RCTs:
- SENSCIS: patients with SSc-ILD, no evidence of disease progression required for enrollment
- Nintedanib reduced rate of FVC decline compared to placebo
- ½ of patients on MMF at enrollment, nintedanib effective regardless of MMF use
- INBUILD: Patients with non-IPF progressive fibrosing ILD, not allowed to be on immunosuppression
- Nintedanib reduced rate of FVC decline compared to placebo
- SENSCIS: patients with SSc-ILD, no evidence of disease progression required for enrollment
- Pirfenidone, data less robust, RCTs ongoing
- Nintedanib, supported by 2 RCTs:
- Emerging diagnostics:
- Envisia genomic classifier can help differentiate UIP from non-UIP histologic patterns from transbronchial lung biopsy and lung cryobiopsy by recognizing transcriptomic signature of UIP
Great work, Gabby!
Annual Landsberg Research Day abstract submission
Abstract submissions opening soon for Landsberg Research Day, a campuswide event scheduled for September 15, 2022. Prizes for winning posters, and anyone affiliated with Feinberg School of Medicine (residents, fellows, grad students, postdocs, faculty, students) can submit!
Abstract submission window 7/28-8/11!
https://www.feinberg.northwestern.edu/research/events/research-day/
Welcome, Class of 2025!
Thanks to third-year Ale for hosting us at her rooftop patio!
Congratulations to the PCCM Fellowship Class of 2022!
Congratulations to the PCCM Fellowship Class of 2022!
Thanks to Justin Fiala for these awesome 3D printed lung planters!
