Division of Pulmonary Disease and Critical Care Medicine
About the Division chair | About the division | Contact information
Faculty members | Clinical areas | Research areas
Fellowship training program
About the Division chair
Alpha Fowler, M.D.
Dr. Fowler has for greater than 10 years been listed in the publication Best Doctors in America and is an award-winning teacher. He serves as a consultant to the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration and the pharmaceutical industry on the treatment of lung disease and lung injury. He divides his time between the ICU where he has pioneered treatments for respiratory distress syndrome and lung injuries, and his basic science laboratory where he investigates the molecular basis of ischemia reperfusion injury. Dr. Fowler is an NIH-supported investigator.
About the Division of Pulmonary Disease and Critical Care Medicine
Divisional faculty members train pulmonary/critical care medicine fellows, internal medicine housestaff and medical students. The division also provides medical directorship to the departments of Respiratory Care, Pulmonary Function, Exercise Physiology and Pulmonary Outpatient Medicine.
Divisional responsibilities include critical care attending coverage and teaching in the Medical Respiratory Intensive Care Unit at the VCU Medical Center and the Medical Intensive Care Unit at the McGuire Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
Division faculty members also direct the pulmonary consultation service and the interventional bronchoscopy service.
For more information, visit the Pulmonary Disease and Critical Care Medicine Web site.
Contact information
Division chair
Alpha A. Fowler, M.D.
P.O. Box 980050
Richmond, Virginia 23298-0050
Phone: (804) 828-9071
Fax: (804) 828-2578
E-mail: aafowler@vcu.edu
Coordinator
Linda S Douglas
P.O. Box 980050
Richmond, Virginia 23298-0050
Phone: (804) 828-9071
E-mail: ldouglas@vcu.edu
Faculty members
There are 15 full-time faculty members. The members of the division are active in resident conferences, resident case conferences, intern conferences and grand rounds at VCU Medical Center and McGuire Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
The division also has weekly Fellows’ Conferences, a weekly Thoracic Imaging Conference and monthly Basic Research and Lung Pathology conferences held at the VCU Medical Center.
Clinical areas
Pulmonary Disease and Critical Care Medicine faculty members perform general consultative pulmonary medicine both in the outpatient and inpatient settings
Theses services include complete evaluation for adult diseases such as: asthma, emphysema, chronic bronchitis, lung cancer, evaluation of abnormal chest X-rays, pneumonia, occupational lung disease, sarcoidosis, interstitial lung disease, tuberculosis, atypical tuberculosis, pulmonary arterial hypertension and evaluations for lung transplantation.
The Division has an active Interventional Bronchoscopy Service headed up by Dr. R. Wesley Shepherd. Division faculty provide all attending coverage for the Medical Respiratory Intensive Care Units at both VCU Medical Center and McGuire Veterans Affairs and Medical Center.
Research areas
There are active ongoing research projects involving clinical and basic science. Clinical investigation includes delirium and sedation practices in critically ill patients, lung injury, sepsis and organ failure.
The division also participates in national clinical trials for sepsis, pneumonia, ARDS and COPD. Basic research includes: mechanisms of lipid peroxidation and cholesterol ester hydrolysis in coronary artery plaques, the molecular pathogenesis of ischemia reperfusion injury, molecular control of antioxidant injury in endothelial cells, the molecular control of airway inflammation in asthma and the molecular control of lung water through sodium channels.
The research is supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, the American Heart Association, the American Lung Association, the American Lung Association of Virginia, The Muscular Dystrophy Foundation and the Veteran’s Administration.
Fellowship training program
The Pulmonary Disease and Critical Care Medicine fellowship training program is fully accredited by the American Council on Graduate Medical Education. The fellowship is a three- to four-year fellowship that includes clinical training in pulmonary disease and critical care medicine, thoracic imaging, and invasive thoracic procedures.
Training occurs in both inpatient and outpatient settings at the VCU Medical Center and the McGuire Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Fellows spend equal time at both institutions. Training is given by didactic lectures, bedside teaching and patient care and by individual study. The program has a 50-year tradition of training excellence and its fellows are consistently recognized as the best teachers. Both clinical and basic research training are elements of the program.
2007/11/12
Pulmonary & Critical Care Division Website