Dr. Fernando Martinez

A new screening tool identified roughly half of primary care patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD) who could benefit from available treatments.

A new screening tool for electronic medical records accurately identifies patients who are at high risk of having or developing progressive scarring of the lungs, a condition called idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, according to investigators from Weill Cornell Medicine, NewYork-Presbyterian, the University of Chicago, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Mayo Clinic.

Despite cigarette smoking being the single most preventable risk factor for both chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), two devastating diseases that make it hard to breathe, about 44 million American adults continue to smoke.

Adding antibiotics to usual care does not improve outcomes for people with the lung disease idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), according to the findings from a multi-center, phase 3 clinical trial sponsored by Weill Cornell Medicine.

Critical care physicians, infectious disease specialists and pulmonologists from Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian have published a clinical practice guide for managing severe COVID-19 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Weill Cornell Medicine and the University of Virginia School of Medicine have received a grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and Three Lakes Partners, a philanthropic family organization, to fund the first precision medicine research initiative aiming to transform the diagnosis and treatment of interstitial lung diseases, particularly idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

Pulmonologist Dr. Fernando Martinez hopes that a simple questionnaire can help identify patients with COPD who are undiagnosed—and improve countless lives around the globe.

As a Cuban immigrant, Dr. Fernando Martinez seized opportunities the United States afforded him. Now a pulmonologist and parent, he’s dedicated his career to helping others, and has inspired his children to do the same.

For a survivor of both breast cancer and a brain aneurysm, Sandy Sherman considers her most recent diagnosis of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis to be “a blip on her screen.” Even though Sherman’s disease is irreversible, her steadfast optimism has helped drive research advances in pulmonary fibrosis – especially at Weill Cornell Medicine.