The University of Maryland School of Medicine (UM SOM) is launching the “Program in Lung Healing,” which will explore new scientific approaches to lung healing, including the use of stem cell therapy, personalized diagnostics, and tissue engineering, according to a News Medical report.
The program will also integrate many of UM SOM’s leading programs and departments, including the Department of Medicine’s Division of Pulmonary & Critical Care, the Department of Surgery, and the Program in Trauma’s Critical Care Division.
“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 Dean E. Albert Reece, MD, PhD, MBA, the dean of UM SOM and vice president for medical affairs at the University of Maryland.
Reece added, “With our longstanding leadership in pulmonary medicine, trauma, transplantation and critical care, we are clearly establishing the University of Maryland Medicine’s pre-eminence in the area of vital organ preservation – when the patient’s life is truly on the line.”
The new program will be led by executive director Bartley P. Griffith, MD. “There is a new awareness that lung failure can be treated in much better ways that are both time sensitive and that prevent further injury. Simply put, we can save more lives using the Shock Trauma model, developing and utilizing new tools for lung treatment and mobilizing our teams of expert surgeons,” Griffith explained.
Jeffrey A. Rivest, MS, president and CEO of University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC), added, “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.”
Source: News Medical
