Department of Medicine

Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine

The Division covers a variety of general pulmonary, sleep, and subspecialty clinics across the state of Rhode Island.

Breadcrumb

Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine

The Division covers a variety of general pulmonary, sleep, and subspecialty clinics across the state of Rhode Island.

Overview

The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and its affiliated teaching hospitals offer a 3-year training program in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine. The medical school faculty of over 40 full time hospital-based Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep clinicians and scholars provide a broad and diverse environment for clinical education and research training. Three hospitals participate in the clinical program: Rhode Island Hospital, the Providence VA Medical Center, and The Miriam Hospital. Research training may be hospital based or conducted on the University campus. Four fellowship positions are offered each year for training in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine. Additional years for research training via a T-32 grant are encouraged to appropriate candidates who wish to pursue an academic career in Pulmonary Medicine. Positions for the fellowship are filled through the National Resident Matching Program for Pulmonary Diseases.

The purpose of the fellowship is to prepare board eligible or certified internists for a career in clinical and/or academic Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine. In all aspects of the educational program, the fellow is encouraged to develop an attitude of scholarship and the intellectual curiosity to remain in the informational forefront of the discipline throughout a career. Training is carried out in a scholarly academic atmosphere that provides a wide exposure to clinical Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine as well as clinical and basic science research.

Faculty

  • Jason Aliotta, MD

    Jason Aliotta, MD

    Associate Professor of Medicine; Clinician Educator Director; Critical Care Services for Brown University Health
  • Seema Amin, MD

    Seema Amin, MD

    Assistant Professor of Medicine; Clinician Educator; Director, Pulmonary Ambulatory Medicine
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    Sohaib Ansari, MD

    Assistant Professor of Medicine; Clinician Educator
  • Roger Auth, MD

    Roger Auth, MD

    Assistant Professor of Medicine; Clinician Educator; Associate Director, Adult Cystic Fibrosis Clinic; Director, Citywide Chest Conference
  • Debasree Banerjee, MD

    Debasree Banerjee, MD

    Associate Professor of Medicine; Teaching Scholar; Director, RIH Medical Intensive Care Unit
  • Michael Blundin, MD

    Michael Blundin, MD

    Assistant Professor of Medicine; Clinician Educator; Director, Cystic Fibrosis Adult Program
  • Ghada Bourjeily, MD

    Ghada Bourjeily, MD

    Professor of Medicine; Professor of Health Services; Policy and Practice Director of Women’s Health Research
  • Vesna Buntak, MD

    Vesna Buntak, MD

    Assistant Professor of Medicine; Clinician Educator
  • E. Jane Carter, MD

    E. Jane Carter, MD

    Professor of Medicine (Teaching Scholar); Past President, The Union (International Union Against Tb and Lung Disease), Paris, France
  • Tiffaney Cayton, NP, APRN

    Tiffaney Cayton, NP, APRN

  • Maya Cohen, MD

    Maya Cohen, MD

    Assistant Professor of Medicine; Research Scholar; Director, Post-ICU Recovery Clinic; Associate Director, ECLS Program, Brown University Health
  • Lauren Cushing, MSN, RNP

    Lauren Cushing, MSN, RNP

  • Rachel Darling, MD

    Rachel Darling, MD

    Assistant Professor of Medicine; Clinician Educator; Assistant Program Director, Pulmonary and Critical Care Fellowship; Medical Director, Rhode Island Hospital, Respiratory Intermediary Care Unit
  • Mark Dunlop, MD

    Mark Dunlop, MD

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    Samuel Evans, MD

    Assistant Professor of Medicine; Clinician Educator
  • Andrew Foderaro, MD

    Andrew Foderaro, MD

    Associate Professor of Medicine, Clinician Educator; Director of Nodule Management; Medical Director of Bronchoscopy
  • Eric Gartman, MD

    Eric Gartman, MD

    Associate Prof of Medicine; Director of Pulmonary Function Testing Laboratory; Director, Cardiopulmonary Exercise Testing Laboratory; PCCSM Fellowship Site Director; Director, ICU, Providence VAMC; Providence VAMC: Section Chief, Pulmonary & Critical Care
  • Ronald Gilman, MD

    Ronald Gilman, MD

    Assistant Professor of Medicine, Clinical
  • Elizabeth Harrington, PhD

    Elizabeth Harrington, PhD

    Professor of Medicine; Associate Dean for Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies; Division of Biology and Medicine
  • Emily Ho, RNP

    Emily Ho, RNP

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    Allyson Hughes, MD

  • Matthew Jankowich, MD

    Matthew Jankowich, MD

    Associate Professor of Medicine (Teaching Scholar); Associate Chief of Staff for Education, Providence VA Medical Center
  • Alexander “Toby” Jorrin, PA

    Alexander “Toby” Jorrin, PA

  • Melissa Kaiser, PA-C

    Melissa Kaiser, PA-C Kaiser, PA-C

    Rhode Island Hospital, Medical Intensive Care Unit
  • Peter Karczmar, MD

    Peter Karczmar, MD

    Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine
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    Brian Kimble, MD

    Clinical Associate Professor of Medical Science; Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine
  • James Klinger, MD

    James Klinger, MD, FCCP, ATSF

    Professor of Medicine; Research Scholar; Director, Brown University Health Pulmonary Hypertension Center
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    John Ladetto, MD

    Assistant Professor of Medicine; Clinician Educator
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    Courtney Lamberton, MD

    Assistant Professor of Medicine; Clinician Educator
  • Jisoo Lee, MD

    Jisoo Lee, MD

    Assistant Professor of Medicine; Clinician Educator; Assistant Program Director, Pulmonary and Critical Care Fellowship
  • Andrew Levinson, MD

    Andrew Levinson, MD

    Associate Professor of Medicine; Clinician Educator; Medical Director, Intensive Care Unit, Miriam Hospital; Program Director, Critical Care Medicine Fellowship
  • Douglas Martin, MD

    Douglas Martin, MD

    Assistant Professor of Medicine; Clinician Educator
  • F. Dennis McCool, MD

    F. Dennis McCool, MD

    Professor of Medicine
  • Richard Millman, MD

    Richard Millman, MD

    Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics; Teaching Scholar; Co-Director, Hasbro Children’s Hospital Sleep Medicine Program; Medical Director, Sleep Disorders Centers, Brown Health Hospitals
  • Taro Minami, MD

    Taro Minami, MD

    Associate Professor of Medical Science; Associate Professor of Medicine; Clinician Educator
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    Gabrielle Mock, MD

  • Christopher Mullin, MD

    Christopher Mullin, MD

    Associate Professor of Medicine; Clinician Educator Director, Chronic Thromboembolic Pulmonary Hypertension (CTEPH) Program; Associate Director, Rhode Island Hospital Pulmonary Hypertension Center
  • James Myers, MD

    James Myers, MD

    Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine
  • William Oldham, MD

    William Oldham, MD

    Associate Professor of Medicine; Research Scholar; Director of Research and Innovation, Brown University Health
  • Rachel Putman, MD, MPH

    Rachel Putman

    Director of Interstitial Lung Disease Program
  • Carla Quadros, NP

    Carla Quadros, NP

  • Olimpia Radu, MD

    Olimpia Radu, MD

    Assistant Professor of Medicine; Clinician Educator
  • Erin Elizabeth Rose, NP

    Erin Elizabeth Rose, NP

  • Sharon Rounds, MD

    Sharon Rounds, MD

    Professor of Medicine and of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine; Associate Dean for Translational Science; Principal Investigator: Advance RI-CTR; Staff Pulmonary/Critical Care Physician, Providence VAMC
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    Nancy Saraiva, NP

  • Caitlin Sarmanian, MD

    Caitlin Sarmanian, MD

    Assistant Professor of Medicine, Medical Education
  • James Simmons, MD

    James Simmons, MD

    Assistant Professor of Medicine; Clinician Educator; Program Director, Pulmonary and Critical Care Fellowship; Director, Pulmonary Rehabilitation and Consultation, The Miriam Hospital
  • Navneet Singh, MD

    Navneet Singh, MD

    Assistant Professor of Medicine; Research Scholar; Associate Fellowship Program Director of Research
  • Corey Ventetuolo, MD

    Corey Ventetuolo, MD, MS, ATSF, FAHA

    Professor of Medicine & Health Services; Policy & Practice Director, Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care & Sleep Medicine, Brown University Health; Inaugural Director, Center for Advanced Lung Care Brown University Health; Medical Director, ECLS Program
  • Nicholas Ward, MD

    Nicholas Ward, MD, FCCM

    Associate Professor of Medicine; Teaching Scholar; Director of Critical Care Consult Service

Faculty Career Highlights

Fellowship Programs

Pulmonary and Critical Care Fellowship

The purpose of the fellowship is to prepare board eligible or certified internists for a career in clinical and/or academic Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine.
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Critical Care Medicine Fellowship

The Critical Care Medicine Fellowship Program affiliated with Brown University, Rhode Island Hospital, and the Miriam Hospital offers a 1-2 year training program for applicants looking for robust critical care training.
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Research Programs

The Division sustains a broad research enterprise, with a core of highly active investigators who have generated the majority of its 350-plus peer-reviewed publications since 2021, with active awards from the NIH/NHLBI, the American Thoracic Society, the American Heart Association, and other foundations (CHEST, PHA, AASM, SCCM), an active T32 (Brown Respiratory Research Training Program) plus a deep clinical-trials portfolio. We are focused on three strategic recruitments of established investigators in key areas which will align with projected clinical program and training growth and will submit programmatic funding applications (P20 Center of Biomedical Research Excellence) in the next academic year. 

Strengths

Pulmonary Vascular Disease

This is the Division's flagship. James Klinger directs the Pulmonary Hypertension Center and leads translational work on pulmonary vascular remodeling focused on SOX17 and natriuretic-peptide/cGMP signaling alongside a large therapeutic trials program. Corey Ventetuolo studies sex hormones and the right ventricle in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), including NHLBI sponsored clinical trials, and pulmonary artery endothelial cell biology. Navneet Singh examines the liver–lung axis and circulating mediators of PAH, and Matthew Jankowich contributes population-scale epidemiology of pulmonary hypertension and COPD overlap. Sharon Rounds studies the pulmonary endothelium and vascular remodeling and leads a VA investigator-initiated trial of tadalafil for COPD/emphysema-associated pulmonary hypertension.

Interstitial Lung Disease

An emerging, strategically important program built on recent recruits William Oldham and Rachel Putman. Putman is a national leader in interstitial lung abnormalities (ILA) — early, often subclinical fibrosis detected on CT in large population cohorts — and its genetic (e.g., MUC5B) and clinical determinants of disease progression. Oldham's program extends this with a translational program investigating metabolic drivers of extracellular matrix production. Together they anchor a growing ILD program at the Center for Advanced Lung Care linking quantitative imaging, genetics, and molecular phenotyping to identify at-risk patients and define new targets.

Critical Care

Corey Ventetuolo, medical director of the adult ECMO program, studies cytotoxic amyloid and tau as contributors to end-organ dysfunction and poor outcomes. Maya Cohen's research centers on chronic critical illness — the recovery trajectories and long-term outcomes of patients with prolonged dependence on intensive care — closely integrated with the clinical program she directs. Both contribute to multicenter critical care trial networks. Andrew Levinson advances point-of-care ultrasound in critical illness, including ultrasound-guided deresuscitation in septic shock and management of mechanically ventilated patients.

Sleep & Women's Respiratory Health

Ghada Bourjeily leads a nationally recognized program on sleep disordered breathing in pregnancy, defining how obstructive sleep apnea contributes to hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, and adverse maternal–fetal outcomes, and testing screening and treatment strategies — part of a broader body of work on women's respiratory health across the lifespan. Vesna Buntak's foundation-funded work focuses on restless legs syndrome.

Airways Disease

Roger Auth's CF Foundation–funded research addresses the cardiometabolic complications of cystic fibrosis, including GLP-1R agonist use in CF-related diabetes and the metabolic effects of CFTR modulator therapy.

Health Equity

Debasree Banerjee leads community-partnered work on access and disparities, including CHEST-funded lung cancer screening in marginalized populations in partnership with Amos House, work on the use of race in pulmonary function testing and anti-bias training in medical education. Andrew Levinson collaborates with Brown's School of Engineering on the accuracy of pulse oximetry in people of color, a device bias with direct consequences for critical care decision-making. 

Clinical Trials

One of the region's deepest pulmonary hypertension trials portfolios, led by Drs. Klinger and Ventetuolo, with developing ILD trial infrastructure by Dr. Putman, pairs industry-sponsored Phase 2–3 studies with investigator-initiated trials such as NHLBI-funded trials in PAH and multicenter NHLBI critical care trials.

Training

Research training is a core commitment. Corey Ventetuolo directs the Brown Respiratory Research Training Program T32, and Elizabeth Harrington serves as Associate Dean for Graduate Studies at Brown. Division members serve as training faculty for the BRRTP T32 and mentor undergraduate, medical, and graduate students as well as clinical fellows in the Division.

Opportunities

The Division is pursuing strategic growth in advanced lung disease, with active recruitments to 1) build an airways and obstructive lung disease clinical and research program at the Center for Advanced Lung Care and to 2) lead clinical and molecular phenotyping of advanced lung disease using artificial intelligence. We will also recruit 3) an established investigator in critical care clinical-translational research. The Division has helped build and lead foundational research resources that remain available to its investigators, including the Center for Pulmonary Vascular Biology (CPVB) COBRE and Rhode Island's NIH-funded Advance-CTR (U54), led by Sharon Rounds. Building on this foundation, the Division is planning a new COBRE submission to expand research infrastructure in vascular, metabolic, and advanced lung disease phenotyping. With growing innovation and philanthropic support, the Division is well positioned to translate these strengths and recruitments into sustained, nationally competitive research growth.