year in review: 2022 achievements in thoracic surgery and pulmonary and critical care

G.R. Scott Budinger, MD
Chief, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care, Northwestern Medicine
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Ernest S. Bazley Professor of Airway Diseases, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Ankit Bharat, MD
Chief of Thoracic Surgery

Surgical Director, Northwestern Medicine Lung Transplant Program

Harold L. and Margaret N. Method Research Professor of Surgery, 
​Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
We are proud to highlight the remarkable accomplishments our program has achieved in the past several years, in large part thanks to your efforts as physician leaders.
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Below are some outstanding highlights from the past year.   ​
  • ​Significantly expanding biomedical research: A transformational gift, along with our increasing National Institutes of Health (NIH) portfolio, will create and endow the Simpson Querrey Lung Institute for Translational Science. The institute will advance new discoveries in pulmonary medicine for the benefit of patients.
  • Successfully performing rare and complex procedures: Northwestern Medicine physicians have successfully collaborated on and performed a combined lung-liver transplant, an incredibly rare procedure. As of November 2022, only 10 had been performed in the U.S. that year.
  • Providing leading-edge lung and esophageal cancer care: The Ambulatory Precision Lung Sparing (A-PLUS) Surgery Program is an innovative multidisciplinary program that enables some patients to get an early lung cancer diagnosis, have minimally invasive surgery to remove the malignant nodule and go home — all on the same day. Similarly, the Precision Minimally Invasive Esophagectomy with Enhanced Recovery (PREMIER) program was developed to enable patients to start taking oral diet the day after surgery and be discharged without any feeding tube within five days.
  • Advancing innovative treatment for patients with Stage IV cancers: Through the newly launched Transplant Oncology Program of Northwestern Medicine, physicians at Northwestern Medicine Canning Thoracic Institute performed a double-lung transplant for two patients with medically-refractory Stage IV lung cancer. Then, the physicians launched a prospective clinical registry to follow outcomes after double lung transplant for Stage IV cancers localized to the lungs.
  • Pursuing world-class clinical collaborations: Through Canning Thoracic Institute, patients with respiratory diseases are offered multidisciplinary clinics in a centralized location.
    • We collaborate with Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center at Northwestern  Medicine for integrated cancer care.
    • We offer a combined adult and pediatric cystic fibrosis program in collaboration with Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago.
    • We provide medical and surgical care for patients with pulmonary hypertension with Northwestern Medicine Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute.
    • We offer specialized care for patients with spinal cord injuries through Shirley Ryan AbilityLab.
  • Offering nationally recognized subspecialty pulmonology programs: We are national leaders in care for patients with asthma, COPD, interstitial lung disease, occupational lung disease and interventional pulmonary medicine, and we offer noninvasive ventilation for patients with chronic lung disease.
  • Launching the American Lung Association (ALA)- and NIH-supported Lung Health Cohort: This new national cohort is led by Northwestern Medicine physician-scientists to understand the impact of cholesterol on the lungs and to identify early life interventions that can prevent lung disease. 
  • Leading in robotic surgery: We are one of only two programs in the U.S. and the only program in Illinois that offers robotic airway surgery. We are also the only program in Illinois to offer robotic surgery for life-threatening ventricular arrhythmias and minimally invasive robotic esophageal surgery.
  • Leading in lung failure treatment: We are the highest-volume lung transplant program in Illinois and amongst the top 10 in the country. We  offer a mobile extracorporeal membrane oxygenation unit that allows us to institute life-saving ECMO to unstable patients at distant hospitals and safely transport them to a higher level of care. In addition, we are one of the few programs to offer double-lung transplants for acute lung failure and acute respiratory distress syndrome.

These achievements have helped make us the highest-ranked Pulmonology and Lung Surgery program in Illinois by U.S. News & World Report, 2022 – 2023. We look forward to the accomplishments of our dedicated physicians and skilled surgeons in 2023. 

CLINICAL UPDATES AND ADVANCES

Ambulatory Precision Lunch Sparing (A-PLUS) Surgery Program
Ankit Bharat, MBBS, and colleagues have created the A-PLUS surgery program, a highly precise, minimally invasive, lung-conserving, robot-guided outpatient surgery.  If the results of a biopsy show that a patient's lung nodule is cancerous, surgeons are able to clinch the diagnosis and simultaneously treat the cancer in under a few hours — and on the same day, safely discharge patients who would have otherwise remained hospitalized for days.
Northwestern Medicine Performs First Successful Lung-Liver Transplant
In 2022, Northwestern Medicine physicians successfully collaborated on and performed the health system’s first successful combined lung-liver transplant. 
"Lungs in a Box" Offered at Northwestern Medicine
Amidst the global shortage of donated lungs in 2021 and 2022, Northwestern Medicine helped to expand the donor pool by using a device from XVIVO called XPS™ which is used for ex vivo lung perfusion (EVLP) – nicknamed “lungs in a box” – to rescue potentially viable lungs and those initially deemed “unacceptable” for transplant.
First Positive Crossmatch Lung and Kidney Transplant at Northwestern Medicine
On May 15, 2022, our thoracic surgeons performed the health system's first lung and kidney transplant. In the 2022 year, this procedure was performed on five additional Northwestern Medicine lung transplant patients. 

RESEARCH NEWS AND DISCOVERIES

$25 Million Gift Endows Simpson Querrey Lung Institute for Translational Science
Northwestern University Trustee Kimberly K. Querrey and the Louis Simpson Trust have made a gift to the Feinberg School of Medicine to significantly expand the University’s biomedical research enterprise. A portion of this gift will create and endow the Simpson Querrey Lung Institute for Translational Science. 
Most Common Lung Function Test Misses Lung Disease in Many Black U.S. Adults
The most common test to measure a person’s lung function—spirometry—may be missing many people with impaired lung health, according to a new Northwestern Medicine study published in Annals of Internal Medicine.
First-Ever Millennial Lung Health Study Launches in Chicago Amid COVID-19
​​Northwestern University and the American Lung Association have begun recruitment in Chicago for a first-of-its-kind longitudinal study to track and analyze lung health in millennials at the peak of their lung health. In this national 40-site study, scientists will follow 4,000 adults (aged 25-35) for approximately five years after their initial interviews to evaluate how their environment, lifestyle and physical activity habits affect respiratory health.
Telehealth and CFTR Modulators Accelerating Innovative Models of CF Care
The pandemic accelerated the use of telehealth, revealing tradeoffs from new configurations of care delivery. Michelle Prickett, MD and colleagues review the implications of these recent shifts and offer recommendations to improve the quality of care coordinated across the interdisciplinary teams and an expanding field of subspecialists, while supporting the ability of the patient to take on greater responsibility in disease management.
Therapeutic Approach Could Prevent Injury to Fragile Transplanted Lungs
Northwestern Medicine scientists have discovered a potential therapeutic target in the donor lung that can prevent primary graft dysfunction (PGD) in lung transplant recipients, according to findings published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation (JCI). ​

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