A Leader in Diagnosing and Treating Infants, Children, and Adolescents With Respiratory Conditions

African American pediatrician using nebulizer during inhaling therapy of a small boy in her office.

Department of Pediatrics Annual Report – 2022

Pulmonology

Department of Pediatric Annual Report 2022 Banner
Stephanie Lovinsky-Desir

The Division of Pulmonology provides exemplary multidisciplinary care to children in the New York City area and beyond. Established as one of the first pediatric pulmonology programs in the country over 50 years ago, we are leaders in diagnosing and treating children and adolescents with a wide range of respiratory conditions. Our team includes seven full-time and one part-time faculty members, two nurse practitioners, two nurses and a clinical research group. The division has nationally recognized clinical and research programs, including:

Additionally, we offer multidisciplinary care for children dependent on ventilators and other technologies in our tracheostomy clinic and congenital diaphragmatic hernia follow-up clinic. We have expertise in lung disease associated with prematurity, heart disease (pulmonary hypertension), interstitial lung disease, congenital lung malformations, recurrent pneumonia, primary ciliary dyskinesia, and bronchiectasis. The Cystic Fibrosis Center is part of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Therapeutic Development network.

Research

The division is committed to scientific discovery in pediatric pulmonary diseases and several faculty members and staff are currently funded by the NIH and other large foundations through independent, collaborative, and mentored research awards, including an NIH K award.

Education

Through our fellowship program, we provide comprehensive training to the next generation of leaders in pediatric pulmonary medicine. In recent years our fellows have been supported through grants from the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and the T32 Research Training Program in Lung Diseases.

New Appointments

Honors and Awards

Aliva De, MBBS, FAAP

  • Promoted to Associate Professor of Pediatrics, CUIMC

Stephanie Lovinsky-Desir, MD, MS

  • Appointed to EPA Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee
  • Appointed as Vice Chair of the American Thoracic Society Health Equity and Diversity Committee
  • Selected for participation in the National Academy of Medicine Emerging Leaders Forum

Hossein Sadeghi, MD

  • Accepted to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation International Mentoring Training Initiative that will enhance his ongoing collaboration with the Cystic Fibrosis team in Ecuador.

Major Grants

  • CAUSE Clinical Research Center New York (CAUSE-CRC). U01AI160075-02. Principal Investigator: Meyer Kattan, MD; Co-Investigator: Stephanie Lovinsky-Desir, MD, MS.
  • Physical activity and dose of air pollution in pediatric urban asthma: Impact of minute ventilation. NIH/National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. K01HL140216. Principal Investigator: Stephanie Lovinsky-Desir, MD, MS.
  • Exercise in urban polluted environments and childhood asthma. Amos Medical Faculty Development Award; Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Principal Investigator: Stephanie Lovinsky-Desir, MD, MS.
  • School vs. home environmental exposure and respiratory outcomes. Sub-Award; NIH/DHHS – ECHO Opportunities and Infrastructure Funds. Principal Investigator: Stephanie Lovinsky-Desir, MD, MS.
  • Race, ethnicity, and air pollution in COVID-19 hospitalization OUTcomes (REACH OUT Study). Health Effects Institute. 4985-RFA20-1B/21-8. Co-Principal Investigator: Stephanie Lovinsky-Desir, MD, MS.
  • Advancing health through data integration: Creating a neighborhood environmental vulnerability index for childhood asthma research and clinical care. Data Science and Health Initiative (DASHI). Co-Principal Investigator: Stephanie Lovinsky-Desir, MD, MS.
  • Clinical and Translational Science Award; NIH/NCATS. UL1 TR001873. Principal Investigator: Muredach Reilly, MD; Co-Investigator: Stephanie Lovinsky-Desir, MD, MS.
  • Irving Scholar. Scholar, Principal Investigator: Stephanie Lovinsky-Desir, MD, MS.
  • Air pollution in urban communities and childhood respiratory outcomes. Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. Principal Investigator: Stephanie Lovinsky-Desir, MD, MS.
  • The efficacy of CAMP Air, a web-based asthma intervention among urban adolescents with uncontrolled asthma. NIH/NHLBI. 4 R322 HL151958-02. Co-Investigator: Stephanie Lovinsky-Desir, MD, MS.
  • Children's respiratory and environmental workgroup (CREW): NIH environmental influences on child health outcomes (ECHO). 5UG3OD023282-02. Principal Investigator: James Gern, MD; Site Principal Investigator: Meyer Kattan, MD; Site Study Supervisor: Stephanie Lovinsky-Desir, MD, MS.
  • ORal Bacterial EXtracts (ORBEX): Primary prevention of asthma and wheezing in children. NIH/National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. 1U01HL130045-01 Principal Investigator: Fernando Martinez, MD; Site Principal Investigator: Meyer Kattan, MD.
  • Translating an evidence-based urban asthma program for rural adolescents: Testing effectiveness and cost-effectiveness and understanding factors associated with implementation. NIH/National Heart, Lung & Blood Institute. R01HL136753. Principal Investigator: Jean-Marie Bruzzese, PhD; Co-Investigator: Meyer Kattan, MD.
  • Daily vitamin D for sickle-cell respiratory complications: Phase 2. NIH/FDS. R01FD006372. Co-Investigator: Meyer Kattan, MD.
  • The development and pilot testing of a caregiver-child shared decision-making intervention to improve asthma in urban youth. NIH/NINR. R21NR019668. Co-Investigator: Meyer Kattan, MD.
  • Cystic Fibrosis Center Grant; Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Principal Investigator: Hossein Sadeghi, MD; Co-Investigator: Andrei Constantinescu, MD.
  • Pediatric Neuromuscular Clinical Research Network for SMA (PNCR Network). SMAF. CU18-2886. Site Principal Investigator: Darryl De Vivo, MD; Co-Investigator: Andrei Constantinescu, MD.
  • Therapeutics Development Center Award; Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Co-Investigator: Hossein Sadeghi, MD.
  • A prospective study to evaluate biological and clinical effects of significantly corrected CFTR function in infants and young children (BEGIN). Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. BEGIN-OB-19. Site Principal Investigator: Hossein Sadeghi, MD.
  • Rare CFTR mutation cell collection protocol (RARE). Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. RARE-OB-16. Principal Investigator: Dave Nichols, MD; Site Principal Investigator: Hossein Sadeghi, MD.
  • TDN principal investigator protected effort (PIPE). Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. SADEGHI18Y6. Principal Investigator: Hossein Sadeghi, MD.
  • Assessing effectiveness of CF IP&C guidelines. Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Site Principal Investigator: Hossein Sadeghi, MD.
  • Effects of air pollution on sickle cell disease, painful crises and respiratory events in New York City. Columbia NIEHS Center for Environmental Health in Northern Manhattan. 5P30 ES009089. Principal Investigator: Andrea Baccarelli, MD, PhD; Principal Investigator: Aliva De, MD (individual project).
  • A progressive pediatric pulmonology elective curricular innovation. Columbia Children’s Health Innovation Nucleation Fund. Principal Investigator: Aliva De, MD.
  • A double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial to evaluate the dose-exposure and safety of nintedanib per os on top of standard of care for 24 weeks followed by open label treatment with nintedanib of variable duration in children and adolescents (6 to 17 years old) with clinically significant fibrosing interstitial lung disease. Boehringer Ingelheim. 1199-0337. Principal Investigator: Aliva De, MD.
  • Shah/Sadeghi – First- and second-year fellowship grant. SHAH22B0. Mentor: Hossein Sadeghi, MD; Fellow: Mahrukh Shah, MD.
  • Cystic fibrosis first-year fellowship. Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. MURRAY21B0. Mentor: Hossein Sadeghi, MD; Fellow: Laurie Murray, MD.
  • Training in pediatric infectious diseases. NIH/NIAID. 5T32AI007531-23. Trainee: Laurie Murray, MD.
  • Anesthesiology research training. NIH/NIGMS. 5T32GM008464-29. Trainee: Nooralam Rai, MBBS.
  • ATS ASPIRE fellowship 2022-2023 cycle. Mentor: Sanja Jelic, MD; Fellow: Audrey Chang, MD.
  • NIH RECOVER: A multi-site observational study of post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection in pediatric populations. OT2HL161847-01. Co-Investigator: Aliva De, MD.

Selected Publications

Rai N, Arteaga-Solis E, Goldklang M, Zelonina T, D’Armiento J. The role of secreted frizzled related protein-1 in allergic asthma. Am J Respir Cell Mol Biol. March 2022. 

Kass AP, Berbert L, Dahlberg S, Bern E, Sabharwal S, Leonard J, Richmond T, Sawicki GS. Eating disorders in adolescents and young adults with cystic fibrosis. Pediatr Pulmonol. 2022;57(11):2791-2797. doi: 10.1002/ppul.26102. Epub 2022 Aug 17. PMID: 35931664.

Jung KH, Pitkowsky Z, Argenio K, Quinn J, Bruzzese Jean-Marie, Miller RL, Chillrud SN, Perzanowski M, Stingone JA, Lovinsky-Desir S. The effects of the historical practice of residential redlining in the United States on recent temporal trends of air pollution near New York City schools. Environ Int. 2022;169: 107551.

Joseph SP, Borrell LN, Lovinsky-Desir S, Moroko AR, Li S. Bullying and lifetime asthma among children and adolescents in the United States. Ann Epidemiol. 2022; 69:41-47. 

Sanchez KM, Layton AM, Garofano R, Yaniv P, Perzanowski MS, Chillrud SN, Miller RL, Kattan M, Lovinsky-Desir S. Nitrogen dioxide pollutant exposure and exercise-induced bronchoconstriction in urban childhood asthma: A pilot study. Ann Am Thorac. 2022;19(1):139-142. doi: 10.1513/AnnalsATS.202103-254RL. PMID: 34214020; PMCID: PMC8787788.

Jackson DJ, Bacharier LB, Gergen PJ, Gagalis L, Calatroni A, Wellford S, Gill MA, Stokes J, Liu AH, Gruchalla RS, Cohen RT, Makhija M, Khurana Hershey GK, O'Connor GT, Pongracic JA, Sherenian MG, Rivera-Spoljaric K, Zoratti EM, Teach SJ, Kattan M, Dutmer CM, Kim H, Lamm C, Sheehan WJ, Segnitz RM, Dill-McFarland KA, Visness CM, Becker PM, Gern JE, Sorkness CA, Busse WW, Altman MC. Mepolizumab for urban children with exacerbation-prone eosinophilic asthma in the USA (MUPPITS-2): a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group trial. Lancet. 2022;400(10351):502-511. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(22)01198-9. PMID: 35964610; PMCID: PMC9623810.

McCauley KE, Flynn K, Calatroni A, DiMassa V, LaMere B, Fadrosh DW, Lynch KV, Gill MA, Pongracic JA, Khurana Hershey GK, Kercsmar CM, Liu AH, Johnson CC, Kim H, Kattan M, O'Connor GT, Bacharier LB, Teach SJ, Gergen PJ, Wheatley LM, Togias A, LeBeau P, Presnell S, Boushey HA, Busse WW, Gern JE, Jackson DJ, Altman MC, Lynch SV. Seasonal airway microbiome and transcriptome interactions promote childhood asthma exacerbations. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2022;150(1):204-213. doi: 10.1016/j.jaci.2022.01.020. Epub 2022 Feb 8. PMID: 35149044.

South K, George M, Sadeghi H, Piane V, Smaldone A. Moving up: Healthcare transition experiences of adolescents and young adults with cystic fibrosis. J Pediatr Nurs. 2022; 65:116-123.

Simonson JL, Esposito C, Frantzen T, Henthorne K, Espinal A, Romano S, Ramdeo R, Trentacoste J, Tsang D, LaVecchia G, Abdullah R, Berdella M, Bonitz L, Condos R, Constantinescu A,  DeCelie-Germana JK, DiMango E, Draine M, Gimeli T, Giusti R, Guzman J, Hammouda S, Keating C, Kier C, Lennox AT, Liriano C, Messer Z, Plachta A, Sadeghi H, Schwind E, Stables-Carney T, Walker P, Wang J. The clinical impact of the Covid-19 pandemic first wave on patients with cystic fibrosis in New York. J Cyst Fibros. 2022;21(3):e176-e183.

Gerall CD, Stewart LA, Price J, Kabagambe S, Sferra SR, Schmaedick MJ, Hernan R, Khlevner J, Krishnan US, De A, Aspelund G, Duron VP. Long-term outcomes of congenital diaphragmatic hernia: A single institution experience. J Pediatr Surg. 2022;57(4):563-569.

Highlights

Stephanie Lovinsky-Desir Appointed to EPA Advisory Committee

Stephanie Lovinsky Desir, MD, MS has been appointed to the EPA Children's Health Protection Advisory Committee (CHPAC) for 2023-2026. CHPAC, a body of external representatives from research, academia, healthcare, legal, state, environmental organizations, and local and tribal governments, advises the EPA on regulations, research, and communications related to children's environmental health.

Read More

RSV Cases on the Rise: What to Know

Pediatric pulmonologist Hossein Sadeghi, MD recently spoke with NYP Health Matters about the signs and symptoms of RSV, a respiratory virus that has been affecting a growing number of infants and children over the past several weeks. He also discussed protective measures, and when parents should seek medical attention.

NYP Health Matters