Pediatric Pulmonology

Overview

Breathing is an essential part of life. It can be scary to see your child struggling to take a breath and upsetting to see them unable to enjoy certain activities because of respiratory issues. At NewYork-Presbyterian Queens, we understand your concerns and offer top-notch respiratory care to help your child breathe easily again. Our experienced pediatric pulmonology team provides diagnostic and treatment services for children with respiratory and allergic diseases and disorders. We work closely with you to create a customized plan of care for your child to improve their function and quality of life.

About Our Program

NewYork-Presbyterian Queens provides state-of-the-art diagnostic and treatment services for children with a broad range of respiratory diseases and disorders. Our pediatric pulmonology team offers comprehensive and compassionate care to children with respiratory problems and provides testing and treatments not widely available elsewhere.

We put together the best team of experts to assess and meet your child’s needs. In addition to pediatric pulmonologists, our healthcare teams include respiratory therapists trained specifically to care for children needing respiratory support, such as oxygen therapy, breathing treatments, or more advanced ventilation management (i.e., a breathing tube). We collaborate with other pediatric specialists and team members at NewYork-Presbyterian Queens, including those in general pediatrics, gastroenterology, neurology, cardiology, and surgery.

Your child’s care begins with an accurate diagnosis based on comprehensive assessments of their anatomy, symptoms, and function. NewYork-Presbyterian Queens is among the few centers in the New York metropolitan area able to noninvasively measure and monitor lung function in children of any age. If your child is at risk for or has already been diagnosed with lung disease, this testing can provide the critical information needed to choose the most effective treatment and help your child start breathing better as soon as possible.

Our pediatric pulmonary care team is available for consultations to patients staying at NewYork-Presbyterian Queens and two outpatient locations: the Pediatric Asthma Center in Fresh Meadows and the Pediatric Asthma Clinic at the Jackson Heights Family Health Center.

As your child nears adulthood, our pediatric pulmonologists collaborate with our adult pulmonologists to prepare adolescents for a smooth transition from pediatric to adult care.

Should you need care unavailable at our hospital, we can facilitate a referral to the pediatric subspecialists at NewYork-Presbyterian Komansky Children’s Hospital in Manhattan.

What We Treat

Our teams have exceptional experience diagnosing and treating respiratory diseases and disorders in even the smallest patients, including children and adolescents with:

• Asthma, from mild to severe
• Cystic fibrosis
• Aerodigestive issues involving the airway, lungs, and upper digestive tract
• Sleep apnea and other sleep disorders
• Behavioral sleep difficulties
• Breathing challenges related to neuromuscular disorders
• Chronic cough
• Noisy breathing, such as stridor or wheezing
• Shortness of breath
• Chest pain
• Chronic lung disease of prematurity
• Recurrent pneumonia
• Environmental allergies
• Exercise-induced bronchospasm
• Aspiration
• Airway problems, such as tracheobronchomalacia or laryngomalacia
• Congenital lung cysts and other lung birth defects
• Poor airway clearance with muscle weakness (hypotonia)
• Bronchiectasis
• Primary ciliary dyskinesia
• Interstitial lung disease in children
• EVALI: e-cigarette/vaping-associated lung injury, with care provided by pulmonologists as well as addiction specialists

Special Programs and Services

Pediatric Asthma Center

The NewYork-Presbyterian Queens Pediatric Asthma Center provides comprehensive care for children with asthma from infancy through age 21. We assess your child’s symptoms and perform tests necessary to make an accurate diagnosis. We then work with you to develop a care plan tailored to your child’s needs and carefully monitor the response to treatment, providing appropriate follow-up and ongoing personalized care. Our services include:

• According to national guidelines, asthma treatment is personalized to your child’s needs — including the latest biological therapies
• Coordination with your child’s primary care physician to ensure continuity of care
• Education about asthma care is provided to you by our certified asthma educators.
• Referrals to community resources, such as Community Health Workers, St. Mary’s Home Care Asthma Management Program, local pharmacies, the American Lung Association, and the Asthma Coalition of Queens
• Evaluation of your child’s home environment to assess for asthma triggers

Respiratory Therapy

The pediatric pulmonary care team includes respiratory therapists both at the hospital and in the NewYork-Presbyterian Queens Pediatric Asthma Center. These specially trained professionals help children of all ages who are experiencing breathing problems due to asthma or other conditions. The goal is to minimize respiratory distress or failure using various therapeutic modalities and diagnostic tests the Respiratory Therapist performs under a physician’s order. Services include:

• Administration and assessment of the use of aerosolized medications for relief of bronchospasm and airway inflammation
• BIPAP (bilevel positive airway pressure), high flow nasal cannula, and other therapies for children on the inpatient unit in need of breathing support
• Respiratory support for newborns in the hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit
• Prompt treatment for children who come into the Pediatric Emergency Department or are admitted to the Pediatric Intermediate Care Unit and are experiencing breathing difficulties
• Education about asthma self-management
• Pulmonary function testing in our Pulmonary Function Lab for children, including spirometry, airway hyper-responsiveness testing, lung volumes, diffusing capacity, and exercise testing

The ASPIRE Program

Located at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center and NewYork-Presbyterian Queens, the ASPIRE (Asthma Program for Innovation Research and Education) program is a pediatric asthma network that enables patients to receive the same standard of high-quality comprehensive asthma care across both campuses. This multi and interdisciplinary program allows for shared best practices, data, and community resources to provide top-quality, state-of-the-art care to NYP pediatric asthma patients in their local area.

NewYork-Presbyterian’s Pediatric Lung Disorder Programs

At NewYork-Presbyterian’s two dedicated children’s hospitals - NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital and NewYork-Presbyterian Komansky Children’s Hospital – teams have experience treating every type of pediatric lung disorder, featuring:

Pediatric sleep disorder centers. Two dedicated sleep labs are explicitly designed for infants, children, adolescents, and their families.

Cystic fibrosis expertise. The Sue and John L. Weinberg Cystic Fibrosis Center at NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital provides diagnostic testing, treatment, and opportunities to participate in research studies.

Lung disease related to other illnesses. Pulmonologists at NewYork-Presbyterian Komansky Children’s Hospital have established unique collaborations with pediatric cancer and rheumatology specialists at our hospital and from neighboring hospitals to care for children with lung problems related to those diseases or their treatment. Both of our children’s hospitals have expertise in treating chronic lung disease in children who were born premature, following them closely and customizing treatment to their evolving needs.

Neuromuscular disease clinic. NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital provides specialized care for children with respiratory problems associated with muscular dystrophy, spinal muscular atrophy, and other neuromuscular diseases.

Rare lung diseases. We are expanding our programs for pediatric interstitial lung disease and primary ciliary dyskinesia — a rare genetic condition characterized by chronic respiratory tract infections, abnormally positioned internal organs, and the inability to have children.

Our Approach to Care

Holistic and Comprehensive Care

At NewYork-Presbyterian Queens, we recognize that every child has a unique set of symptoms, circumstances, and needs. We take a holistic approach to care that considers the entire patient, including their physical, emotional, and social factors. We partner with patients and their families in shared decision-making, empowering them with knowledge, support, and the most effective treatment options to achieve the best possible outcome for every child.

Multidisciplinary Team Approach

At NewYork-Presbyterian Queens, our pediatric pulmonology program integrates the expertise of other pediatric specialists and team members at NewYork-Presbyterian Queens, including those in general pediatrics, gastroenterology (digestive care), neurology (nervous system care), cardiology (heart care), and surgery. Our pediatric pulmonologists also collaborate with NewYork-Presbyterian’s network of specialists in all areas of pediatric medicine and surgery, allowing us to provide state-of-the-art, comprehensive, and coordinated care for any medical issue or concern.

Parents As Team Members

As a parent, only you can provide important information about your child. You can also help other team members shape your child’s personalized treatment program based on your child’s physical, emotional, and practical needs. Your input is critical for making final decisions regarding your child’s care. Our multidisciplinary team is here to work alongside you and your family to achieve the greatest possible outcomes for your child.

Why Choose Us

Expertise in Pediatric Pulmonology

NewYork-Presbyterian established one of the first pediatric pulmonary programs in the country in the 1970s. Doctors here were the first to describe cystic fibrosis in 1938. Today your child benefits from decades of expertise and leadership that result in the best outcomes possible. Today, NewYork-Presbyterian investigators are researching to propel the field of pediatric pulmonology. As one of only nine clinical research sites in the National Institutes of Health-funded Inner-City Asthma Consortium, investigators are studying environmental and psychosocial factors linked to asthma in inner-city children and healthcare delivery issues to improve care.

Seamless Access to World-Class Medical Experts

NewYork-Presbyterian Queens is affiliated with NewYork-Presbyterian & Weill Cornell Medicine, an Ivy League medical school that is among the nation’s best in patient care, medical education, and research. We offer many of the highly specialized services typically found in an academic medical center, but without the commute to Manhattan and in the comfortable setting of a local community hospital. Your child has access to the world-class resources available through our affiliations with the NewYork-Presbyterian healthcare network, ensuring that they receive the most advanced care close to home.

Affiliated with Nationally Ranked Children’s Hospitals

NewYork-Presbyterian Queens offers young patients seamless access to two renowned children’s hospitals, NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital and NewYork-Presbyterian Komansky Children’s Hospital. Both hospitals are among the nation’s leading centers for the diagnosis and treatment of childhood diseases. They are both major referral centers for complex and rare disorders in infants, children, and adolescents.

Convenient Locations

Through NewYork-Presbyterian Medical Group Queens, we offer pediatric healthcare services at several convenient locations close to where you live or work.