Asthma can affect approximately 8 percent of the general US population or 25.7 million people while an estimated 50 million or 1 in 5 adults and children suffer from allergies. Americans suffer from all types of allergies including indoor/outdoor, food, drug, latex, and insects, while asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease of the airways that includes reversible airflow limitation, increased mucous production, and airway edema. Both asthma and allergy together affects 60 million Americans and is responsible for a significant portion of healthcare expenditures, including $56 billion in medical costs due to asthma and $14.5 billion for allergies.
Research Overview
Research in the AAI program is also multi-disciplinary involving the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, & Critical Care Medicine and Rheumatology with the Lowance Center for Human Immunology, and the Departments of Otolaryngology, Pediatrics, and Pathology at Emory University in conjunction with the Veterans Administration (VA) the Environmental and Occupational Health at Emory's Rollins School of Public Health. Our research team in the AAI program studies basic and translational immune mechanisms of diseases of asthma, allergy, and primary immune deficiency as well as working closely with bioengineers to develop novel methods of airflow limitation with passive breathing. Collaborating with the environmental and occupational health, our scientists are also interested in understanding how environmental exposures may affect risk of asthma exacerbations. Our research mission is to understand basic mechanisms of diseases of asthma, allergy, and immunodeficiency to ultimately translate to provide ever better state-of-the-art patient care.
Research Faculty
Teaching
All Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine faculty members seeing asthma patients hold academic appointments in the School of Medicine at Emory University. They actively participate in teaching medical students, medical residents and pulmonary/critical care fellows. They also participate in national meetings such as the American Thoracic Society and present their research. Emory pulmonary/critical care fellows have ample opportunity to care for patients with asthma in the outpatient and inpatient arenas.
Clinical Mission
The Emory Asthma, Allergy, Immunology (AAI) Program involves a multidisciplinary organization of clinicians and investigators in the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine in the Department of Medicine, and the Departments of Otolaryngology, and Pediatrics at Emory University.
Our mission is to provide comprehensive care for adult patients with diseases that include asthma, allergy, and immunology. The clinical group encompasses physicians with specialties in Pulmonary (Dr. Lee) and Allergy/Immunology (Drs. Shih, Lodi, and Shams) who work closely with those in Otolaryngology/Rhinology (Dr. Wise) and the Emory Voice Center (Dr. Klein).
In addition, the program also provides novel, innovative pulmonary procedures such as Bronchial Thermoplasty, Endobronchial Ultrasound (EBUS), and navigational bronchoscopy by highly trained interventional pulmonologists (Dr. Berkowitz). We also provide state-of-the art evaluation and care of pediatric and adult patients with immunodeficiencies with world-renowned expert (Dr. Kobrynski).
Finally, the AAI program also provides opportunities for patients to enroll in clinical trials of novel biologic agents (Drs. Wongtrokol and Ioachimescu) and investigator-initiated translational research studies.
Clinical Faculty
Emory Sinus, Nasal, & Allergy Center Faculty
Patient Care
Asthma outpatient visits are available at the Emory Clinic, Emory University Hospital Midtown and Grady Memorial Hospital. Grady Hospital also has a dedicated asthma clinic under the direction of Umbreen Lodi, MD. Inpatient asthma care also occurs at these sites.