National Jewish TB Expertise

DECEMBER 31, 2007

DENVER — National Jewish began 108 years ago as a charity hospital for TB patients. For its first 60 years National Jewish never charged a patient for any services. It now focuses on novel and innovative research and treatments for respiratory, immune and related diseases. National Jewish has been ranked by U.S. News & World Report as the best respiratory hospital in the nation for nine years running.

 

Why did Andrew Speaker come to National Jewish?

National Jewish is arguably the premier institution in the country at which to receive treatment for drug-resistant tuberculosis, for a number of reasons.

Clinical Experience

Our senior physicians, Drs. Charles Daley, Gwen Huitt, and Michael Iseman , have unrivaled experience in the treatment of drug-resistant TB. Their knowledge in selecting optimal drug regimens, anticipating and managing side effects, and preparing patients for surgery is unique. National Jewish physicians have published three benchmark scientific papers on the management of drug-resistant TB (including two in New England Journal of Medicine) during the past 15 years.

Surgery 

Surgeons at our academic partner, the University of Colorado Hospital, are the most experienced in the world at the surgical treatment of drug-resistant TB. For more than two decades our clinicians have collaborated with them to define the role of surgical removal of damaged lung tissue in the treatment of drug-resistant TB.

Insights from Laboratories 

The mycobacterial reference laboratory at National Jewish, led by Dr. Leonid Heifets , is recognized as the best in the world, with an unmatched ability to perform drug-susceptibility testing to identify the medications most active against each individual strain of TB. The pharmacokinetics laboratory, led by Dr. Charles Peloquin , can monitor precisely drug levels in patients’ blood, which allows clinicians to optimize therapeutic efforts while controlling medication side effects.

Research 

Clinicians, basic researchers and laboratory personnel all conduct research seeking to better understand the TB bug and how to defeat it. Research areas include development of new drugs and improved TB vaccines, molecular epidemiology to track spread of the disease, and better method to determine drug-resistance.

Much more than TB

TB is only one of several areas in which National Jewish faculty and physicians are recognized as world leaders. Other areas of expertise include:

National Jewish has also been recognized as among the 22 most influential research institutions in the world in immunology, molecular biology and genetics, and biology and biochemistry.



Media Resources

We have many faculty members, from bench scientists to clinicians, who can speak on almost any aspect of respiratory, immune, cardiac and gastrointestinal disease as well as lung cancer and basic immunology.

Media Contacts

Our team is available to arrange interviews, discuss events and story ideas.