Geriatrics and Palliative Care Division

Rodney J. Folz, MD, PhD
Division Chief

Welcome to the Houston Methodist Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine.

 

We take pride in our full range of clinical programs designed to address the fundamental needs of patients with respiratory illnesses. Our clinics cover asthma, COPD, interstitial lung disease, pulmonary hypertension, sleep disorders, bronchiectasis and lung transplants. We also engage in or direct a number of multidisciplinary programs involving clinicians from other specialties, including cardiology, oncology, thoracic surgery, cardiovascular surgery, otolaryngology, anesthesiology and radiology.

 

Some of these collaborative programs include the Critical Care Recovery Clinic and Interventional Pulmonology, which includes procedures like rigid bronchoscopy tumor resection and laser and robotic-assisted bronchoscopy using the Ion by Intuitive and MONARCH™ Platform systems.


Another well-established collaborative program is Pulmonary Hypertension, which now performs exercise hemodynamic assessments, balloon pulmonary angioplasties and right heart catheterizations with pulmonary angiograms. This program is gaining many new referrals and has been named an Accredited Center of Comprehensive Care by the Pulmonary Hypertension Association, making it one of only two accredited comprehensive care programs in Texas. The program has also been recognized as a Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation Care Center for interstitial lung disease, one of only five certified centers in Texas.

Our division is also proud to host the largest adult lung and heart-lung transplant center in Texas, providing comprehensive post-transplant care for hundreds of lung and heart-lung recipients. Our Advanced Lung Disease (ALD) clinic serves the needs of patients who are not imminent transplant candidates but may require a transplant in the future. In addition to these impressive accolades, Houston Methodist Pulmonology and Lung Surgery is ranked 15th in the country and #1 in Texas by U.S. News & World Report.


Our dedication to quality clinical care coincides with our commitment to research. Our research portfolio is one of the largest in the Department of Medicine with over 40 specific research trials, grants and projects supported by our state-of-the-art biomedical and basic pulmonary research laboratory.


Our Team

Full-time faculty:

Rodney Folz, MD, PhD, ATSF

Umair Ashraf, MD

Kim Bloom, MD

Mena Botros, MD

Chris Cortes, MD

Tarek Dammad, MD

Ahmad Goodarzi, MD

Deepa Gotur, MD

Howard Huang, MD

Matt Khoshnevis, MD

Daniela Moran, MD

Zeenat Safdar, MD

 

Sandeep Sahay, MD

Raul Sanchez-Leon, MD

Mohi Syed, MD

Simon Yau, MD

George Youssef, MD

Faisal Zahiruddin, MD

 

Full-time research faculty:

Decha Pinkaew, PhD

 

Part-time faculty:

Max Adelman, MD

Zoulficar Kobeissi, MD

Vincent Valentine, MD