Respiratory and Critical Care

Welcome to Respiratory and Critical Care at The University of Illinois Medical Center. Our twenty full-time clinical/research faculty members, six volunteer faculty members and six faculty members from other departments, provide a wide range of respiratory and pulmonary services at the University of Illinois Medical Center and at five affiliated institutions throughout Chicago. We have state-of-the-art facilities to conduct pulmonary function tests, sleep studies and lung transplantations. Our physicians diagnose and treat patients with diseases of the lung and other respiratory disorders. They also care for individuals in several medical intensive care units.

Our Services

Respiratory Care
We offer a diverse range of services within the section of Respiratory Care. For more information on each of our services and what they may offer you, please visit Our Services.

Critical Care
We direct an eleven-plus bed Medical Intensive Care Unit, which cares for seriously ill patients with sepsis, multi-organ failure, such as respiratory, cardiac, renal, or liver, and GI bleeding. We care for patients with bone marrow, liver, and renal transplants undergoing immunosupression, as well as AIDS, and end stage pulmonary and liver diseases. State-of-the-art monitoring systems and ventilators, an experienced and dedicated nursing staff, and a large team of medical professionals - intensivists, pharmacists, and infectious disease specialists - assure the provision of exceptional care to our most critically ill patients.

The ABC’s of COPD
COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), as defined by the National Lung Health Education Program (NHLEP), is a group of diseases that include chronic bronchitis, emphysema, and asthmatic bronchitis. The characteristic common to these diseases is obstruction to airflow out of the lungs and the common symptom is shortness of breath. In the United States, 90% of COPD is due to smoking while the less common causes of COPD are such diseases as cystic fibrosis, bronchiectesis, and genetic forms of emphysema. COPD accounts for over 110,000 deaths per year in the US, making it the fourth leading cause of death. Over 15 million people have COPD and the estimated cost of treating COPD is over 20 billion dollars. The death rate has increased most significantly in women, reflecting the increased number of women who smoke.