Bruce Levy, Shaf Keshavjee and Raphael Bueno

BWH has long been renowned for its exceptional pulmonary medicine and thoracic surgery care, research and teaching. Last week, the hospital announced the start of a new chapter in lung services, with the formal launch of the Lung Center—BWH’s newest center of excellence—and the Lung Research Center, part of the Brigham Research Institute.

Together, the two centers will enable BWH to provide the highest level of personalized care by bringing the latest advances in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of lung disease directly to patients.

“The Lung Center is focused on our patients and is structured to foster communication and teamwork, facilitate collaboration between departments and services, and enhance our existing areas of strength,” said BWHC President Betsy Nabel, MD. “We look forward to watching the Lung Center harness the entrepreneurial spirit of many staff and disciplines to further improve the patient care experience within BWH and in collaboration with our colleagues at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.”

Several events celebrating the launch took place last week, including Pulmonary Grand Rounds and Thoracic Surgery Grand Rounds, featuring guest speaker Shaf Keshavjee, MD, professor and chair of the Division of Thoracic Surgery at the University of Toronto, director of the Toronto Lung Transplant Program, and surgeon-in-chief of University Health Network.

Keshavjee spoke about ex vivo repair of organs for transplantation, an innovative therapy that provides the ability to evaluate donor lungs outside of the body before transplantation. The therapy improves organ quality and makes lungs that were previously unsuitable safe for transplant. Ex vivo repair has the potential to increase the pool of lung donors.

On May 6, BWH lung researchers and clinicians celebrated the launch of the Lung Research Center with an inaugural event featuring a keynote address by Jeffrey M. Drazen, MD, of the Pulmonary Division at BWH and editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine. Drazen shared stories from a research career that has spanned more than 30 years and included personal anecdotes about key figures and discoveries that have helped transform the care of asthma patients. After the keynote, clinicians and researchers were invited to attend a poster session in Cabot Atrium.

In addition, BWHers from the Lung Center, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine and Partners Asthma Center gave a hands-on presentation about asthma to children and their families at the Roxbury Tenants of Harvard Community Center in recognition of World Asthma Day.

Under the leadership of Raphael Bueno, MD, chief of the Division of Thoracic Surgery, and Bruce Levy, MD, chief of the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, supported by a multidisciplinary organizing committee, the Lung Center is poised to lead BWH into the next generation of advances in pulmonary and thoracic care.

The mission of the Lung Research Center is to highlight the exciting current research activities of lung researchers at BWH and to encourage future advances in our understanding of lung biology and disease.

The research center will connect BWH’s outstanding researchers in lung health and disease to accelerate discoveries and quickly bring them to the bedside. Bueno and Levy, along with Ed Silverman, MD, PhD, chief of the Channing Division of Network Medicine, will co-direct the research center’s efforts to conduct scientific research that helps us better understand, treat and prevent lung disease.