The Section maintains its offices and laboratories in Riley Hospital for Children of the Indiana University Hospitals in Indianapolis. Riley Hospital is the primary teaching facility for the Pediatric Department of the Indiana University School of Medicine and is the main tertiary referral center for children in the State of Indiana.

Inpatient

Riley Hospital has 261 beds, with an average daily census of 180 and average bed occupancy of 85%. There are 8,500 admissions yearly of which approximately 950 are to the critical care service, which has an average daily ward census of 20 and a pediatric ICU census of 16.

Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU)

A 34 bed Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) admits all types of patients who require surgical or medical intensive care.

Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU)

The Newborn Intensive Care Unit is a Level III facility with 45 beds, accounting for 800 admissions yearly. The Section of Pulmonology is consulted for special problems in the NICU and is actively involved in the long-term management and follow-up of infants with apnea, BPD and other chronic respiratory disorders of infancy.

The Nurture Center (Infant ICU)

The Nurture Center (Infant ICU) is a 6 bed intensive care facility for infants with chronic ventilator dependency - usually secondary to BPD. The Section of Pulmonology provides the day-today management of ventilation and other respiratory support needs of these children. Specialists in child development and rehabilitation coordinate the developmental needs of the patients. This unit provides a unique opportunity for longitudinal management of chronic respiratory insufficiency of infants.

Ambulatory Care

Ambulatory care is provided in the Riley Outpatient Center (ROC). This four-floor ambulatory care facility provides patient examination rooms, laboratory facilities, radiology services and pharmacy services. The ROC also houses the Pediatric Cardiopulmonary Center or pulmonary diagnostic laboratories. The pulmonology clinics have approximately 12,000 outpatient visits yearly and average 40 new patients for outpatient diagnostic evaluation weekly. Seriously ill referrals are evaluated initially in the Emergency Room, which has the facilities to provide a broad range of care from mild respiratory infection to full cardiopulmonary arrest.

Clinical Setting

The Section maintains its clinical program at James Whitcomb Riley Hospital for Children of the Indiana University Hospitals in Indianapolis. Riley Hospital is the primary teaching facility for the Pediatric Department of the Indiana University School of Medicine and is the only tertiary referral center for children in the State of Indiana. The Pediatric Pulmonology service typically admits over 2,000 inpatients, including greater than 650 new patients per year. Patients are admitted to age and service appropriate inpatient units. Critically ill children are admitted to the 36 bed pediatric Intensive Care Unit.

Ambulatory care is provided in the newly opened Riley Outpatient Center, a state-of-the art clinical facility. Nursing, dietary, pharmacy, laboratory and radiographic support are readily accessible. The pulmonology clinics have approximately 10,000 outpatient visits yearly and average 30-40 new patients for outpatient diagnostic evaluation weekly. In addition to general pulmonary clinics, other clinical programs with regularly scheduled sessions include the Cystic Fibrosis Clinic, BPD/Home Ventilator Clinic, Apnea Clinic, Sleep Disorders Clinic, Infant Lung Disease Clinic, Allergy Clinic, and Immune Disorders Clinic.

State of the art laboratory support includes the Pulmonary Function Laboratory, the only facility in the state devoted to the evaluation of lung function in children; the Infant Pulmonary Function laboratory; the Pediatric Sleep disorders Center, the largest Pediatric sleep lab in the nation; and the flexible bronchoscopy suite where over 50 bronchoscopies are done monthly.

Research Resources

Research training is an integral part of the fellowship and may be in an area of basic science, translational research, or clinical research. Early in the first year of fellowship, trainees are exposed to the research activities of investigators in the Pediatric Pulmonary section as well as in the Adult Pulmonary section and in the Herman B Wells Center for Research. Areas of interest include respiratory physiology, airway inflammation and inflammatory mediators, and Cystic Fibrosis. By the end of the first year of training, a project and mentor is selected. Sufficient time, support, and guidance are given during the fellowship program to allow for completion of a meaningful research project. Fellows typically have presented their research findings at national meetings of the American Thoracic Society and/or the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and have been the first author of one or more manuscripts in journals such as the Journal of Applied Physiology and the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.