2024-2025 review

Patient Care highlights

Making Strides in Reducing Tuberculosis Nationwide

After a patient’s death was connected to Mycobacterium tuberculosis from infected cadaveric bone material, our division took action to ensure better regulation. Thanks to the work done by Robert Dickson, MD, the House of Representatives passed the Shandra Eisenga Human Cell and Tissue Product Safety Act, requiring the Department of Health and Human Services to make reforms regarding the screening of tissue donation materials, conduct education campaigns, and impose penalties on tissue providers who fail to prevent tuberculosis outbreaks.

Inspiring Health Advances in Lung Care (INHALE)

The division continued to lead the state in quality improvement initiatives. Director, Njira Lucia Lugogo, MD, and Co-Director, Michael Sjoding, MD, MSc, spearheaded the INHALE continuous quality improvement initiative, which focuses on improving care for patients with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease across the state. The initiative now partners with 18 physician organizations across Michigan, representing more than 865 providers. As part of its efforts, INHALE has implemented performance measures that track key outcomes including inhaler education and oral corticosteroid use. The program has also notably led to significant improvements in inhaler education outcomes and helped to ensure patients are better equipped to manage their disease. To support participating providers, INHALE offers a variety of educational opportunities and training sessions aimed at enhancing clinical practice and collaborates with several state and community organizations, including the Asthma Initiative of Michigan, Healthy Behaviors of Michigan, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, and MSHIELD to further extend its impact and support evidence-based care delivery.

Expanding Inpatient Care with Interventional Pulmonology

Our Interventional Pulmonology (IP) Program has made tremendous progress, propelled by the vision and support of division leadership. In 2024, under the direction of José De Cardeñas, MD, the program completed more than 1,100 advanced diagnostic and therapeutic bronchoscopies and over 250 pleural procedures - a 20% increase from the previous academic year. The IP program has also strengthened its inpatient services with the successful launch of a new inpatient bronchology consult service for patients with complex airway diseases and expanded operating room capacity, which resulted in more than 400 high-risk airway and pleural procedures. In addition, the division acquired a portable cone beam CT scanner to enhance accuracy and safety of robotic bronchoscopy for lung nodule sampling. We have also launched a new pleural service, led by Brice Taylor, MD, to manage complicated pleural diseases including ultrasound-guided thoracentesis, placement of pigtail catheters with lytic use, consideration of whether large bore chest tubes are necessary, and managing pneumothorax and chest tube care. We assist with the interpretation and management of pleural fluid obtained by medical services including medical procedure service.

Critical Care Unit Launches 3 Wishes Project

The Critical Care Medical Unit (6D) announced the launch of the 3 Wishes Project - a nationwide palliative care initiative that provides compassion and comfort in the intensive care unit (ICU). The project was created to offer a more positive end-of-life experience for ICU patients, their families, and clinicians by granting patients three wishes during their final moments. Led by Madeline Lagina, MD, MPH, Michigan Medicine has partnered with multiple existing services in the hospital to honor patients who reach end-of-life in the ICU and to comfort their loved ones.

Increasing Public Awareness on Lung Effects from Wildfires

Air pollution and poor air quality from wildfires has been an increasingly common occurrence over the last few years, pushing the Air Quality Index (AQI) - a numerical system used by the Environmental Protection Agency to report air quality - to unhealthy levels in many areas of the country. As spokesperson for the American Lung Association, MeiLan Han, MD, MS, spread public awareness about the impact of pollution and poor air quality on lungs and how to reduce risk, with features in numerous high-impact news sites including a feature on CBS News Detroit.

research highlights

First Mobile CT Scanner for Ventilated Patients

Our division collaborated with Xoran Technologies® to optimize the world’s first bedside thoracic CT scanner for ICU use. The team advanced iterative safety and feasibility testing, incorporating input from intensive care unit physicians, nurses, respiratory therapists, and patients. The scanner is currently on-site at Michigan Medicine and is actively being used for research studies to evaluate its performance and clinical utility.

Improving Sepsis Care Nationwide

Sepsis is a life-threatening, acute organ dysfunction that continues to be a major global health burden, leading the cause of hospitalizations, mortality, and healthcare costs. Hallie Prescott, MD, MSc, has studied and cared for patients with sepsis for years, now leading the division’s sepsis research and working at the state and national level to expand sepsis care improvement efforts. Dr. Prescott and her colleagues published a mortality risk-adjustment model for the state of Michigan using patient data from the sepsis registry including chronic health conditions, age, recent hospitalizations, and physiologic data from the first six hours of a hospital visit. She also co-published a review on sepsis and septic shock in The New England Journal of Medicine with Dr. Nuala Meyer from the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. The review covered a range of topics around sepsis and sepsis care including: its biological features, hospitalization and in-hospital mortality trends, pathobiology, clinical presentations and evaluation, management, and more.

Collaborative Effort to Speed ARDS Diagnosis

Through a $4.17M NIH-funded grant, our division collaborated with the Max Harry Weil Institute for Critical Care Research and Innovation to develop a portable, non-invasive breathalyzer device for diagnosing acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and tracking its progress. The team focused on patients’ volatile organic and inorganic compounds (VOCs/VICs) to develop a point-of-care gas chromatography analyzer to gain fundamental insights on the presence of dynamics of VOCs/VICs in exhaled breath. Researchers like Michael Sjoding, MD, have been trying to find faster ways to detect ARDS to determine a patient's improvement or decline.

Reducing Community-Acquired Pneumonia

Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality in the United States. Robert Dickson, MD, authored a comprehensive JAMA review outlining the role of clinical signs and consistent image findings in accurate CAP diagnosis, while highlighting significant gaps in pathogen detection and impact of viral agents, like Streptococcus pneumoniae, COVID-19, and influenza, when pathogens are found. The review detailed treatment recommendations focused on empiric antibiotic therapy by disease severity, risk of resistant organisms, and potential adverse effects, emphasizing the need for antibiotic stewardship and integration of viral diagnostics in CAP management. In 2025, an interdisciplinary team at the University of Michigan, including Dr. Dickson, developed a soft, antimicrobial mouthguard to absorb secretions and help prevent ventilator-associated pneumonia. Backed by the Weil Institute for Critical Care Research and Innovation and BioInterfaces Institutes, the team recieved Michigan Translational Research and Commercialization funding to build the prototype and advance clinical testing.

Asthma ANCHOR Study

The Michigan Asthma Research Team recruited adult patients (18+) diagnosed with asthma for the ANCHOR study - a clinical trial that evaluates the efficacy of AIRSPURA in reducing asthma attacks. AIRSPURA is a newly FDA-approved combination therapy that offers rapid relief and long-term anti-inflammatory benefits. Eligible patients participated in the study over the course of 12 months and received access to treatment at no cost.

Advancing COPD Research

In 2025, Wassim Labaki, MD, MS, received two prestigious awards for his COPD research which focuses on chest imaging biomarkers and metabolomics.

• Young Physician-Scientist Award - Dr. Labaki was among three University of Michigan Medical School faculty, and only 50 nationwide, to receive this award from the American Society for Clinical Investigation. The award recognizes physician scientists who are within one to five years of their first faculty appointment and have made notable achievements in their research.
• Solovy Award for Advancement in COPD - This award by the Respiratory Health Association, granted Dr. Labaki $25,000 to further his COPD research.

New Discoveries in Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a devastating disease characterized by progressive scarring that stiffens tissue, impairs breathing, and leads to respiratory failure. Sean Fortier, MD, has investigated why some lungs undergo progressive fibrosis while others appropriately repair themselves. Dr. Fortier has focused on understanding how to coax already scar-forming fibroblasts to revert into their normal state and be naturally cleared. His work has demonstrated upregulating molecular cell messenger cyclic-AMP (cAMP) within lung fibroblasts that coaxes these cells into reducing their collagen production and reprograms them to be naturally cleared through programmed cell death.

In 2025, Dr. Fortier was awarded an NIH grant for his project, Lung Myofibroblast De-Differentiation and Fibrosis Resolution Depend on cAMP-mediated inhibition of HuR, focused on mechanisms of lung myofibroblast de-differentiation, and the resolution of pulmonary fibrosis.