Pittsburgh Pulmonary Medicine Milestones
The decision to support medical research often comes from a very personal place, usually because of a first-hand experience with a medical condition or because a loved one has struggled with an illness. Thus the question that most people have to answer is not what type of research to support, but where their philanthropy will do the most good.
The University of Pittsburgh is an outstanding institution for pulmonary medicine research because of our long track record of ground-breaking research and patient care. You can rest assured that your gift will be used wisely and will help us continue to advance the field of pulmonary medicine.
Below are some of the major milestones achieved by the University of Pittsburgh Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine (PACCM) and the affiliated University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC).
| YEAR | MILESTONE |
| 1980 | Established the Emphysema Research Center |
| 1982 | First successful lung transplant at UPMC |
| 1982 | Established the Pulmonary Sleep Evaluation Center, now known as the UPMC Center for Sleep Medicine |
| 1990 | UPMC established the Comprehensive Lung Center to coordinate clinical programs of PACCM |
| 1994–1999 | One of 10 centers in the original National Institutes of Health (NIH) Lung Health Study |
| 1997 | Established with UPMC the Asthma, Allergy, Airway Research Center |
| 1999 | Named as one of five national centers that participated in the Feasibility of Retinoid Therapy in Emphysema |
| 2000 | Renowned pulmonary medicine specialist Augustine M. K. Choi, MD, is named the Chief of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine |
| 2000 | Established the Lung Translational Genomics Center for research |
| 2002 | Established the Simmons Center for Interstitial Lung Disease |
| 2002 | Renowned pulmonary expert on genomics of lung disease Naftali Kaminski, MD, became the Director of the Simmons Center for Interstitial Lung Disease |
| 2003 | Named as one of 17 national centers that participated in the National Emphysema Treatment Trial (NETT) |
| 2005 | The University of Pittsburgh is designated to be one of four centers to participate in the Lung Tissue Resource Consortium |
| 2005 | In December, the Simmons Center for Interstitial Lung Disease passes the 1,000 patient mark |
| 2006 | Named by the NIH as one of three Specialized Centers of Clinically Oriented Research Centers of Excellence in research of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease under Principal Investigator, Frank C. Sciurba, MD |
| 2006 | Named in partnership with Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC by the NIH as a Specialized Center of Clinically Oriented Research in Pediatric and Adult Pulmonology under Principal Investigator, Jay K. Kolls, MD |
| 2006 | Renowned pulmonary medicine specialist Steven D. Shapiro, MD, is named Chair of the Department of Medicine in the School of Medicine |
| 2006 | Renowned asthma expert Sally E. Wenzel, MD, became Director of the Asthma, Allergy, and Airway Research Center |
| 2006 | The Comprehensive Lung Centers cared for 11,257 patients |
| 2006 | UPMC performed 101 lung transplants |
| 2007 | The Respironics Foundation pledged funding to establish the Gerald E. McGinnis Fellowship Program in sleep medicine |
| 2007 | Pennsylvania grants funds to establish at the University of Pittsburgh a state-wide registry for Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis patients under Principal Investigator, Nafati Kaminski, MD. Four other state medical centers are collaborators in this project |
| 2007 | The Asthma & Allergic Disease Clinical Research Center opens. |
OTHER RELEVANT FACTS
- UPMC is one of the leading academic medical centers in the United States. It is ranked 14th in the nation according to the 2006 U.S. News & World Report "America’s Best Hospitals" survey, earning a place on the magazine’s prestigious Honor Roll.
- The University of Pittsburgh’s six schools of the health sciences rank seventh in the nation in NIH funding out of more than 3,000 institutions.
- The University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine ranked 5th in research among medical schools in the United States, according to U.S. News & World Report "Best Graduate Schools 2005."
- The University of Pittsburgh in 2006 received a five-year, $80 million grant from the NIH to establish one of 12 Clinical and Translational Science Institutes in the country.
- The University of Pittsburgh has 5,276 research protocols operating on campus.
- UPMC has more transplantation experience than any other center in the world, with more than 14,000 organ transplants in the past 26 years.