Overview

The Northwestern Asthma & COPD Program provides a full range of services, including comprehensive diagnostics, pulmonary rehabilitation, patient education programs, and clinical research. The program’s goal is to help patients manage their disease effectively and live full and active lives while also generating and expanding knowledge regarding these two very important respiratory diseases.

The Northwestern Asthma & COPD Program provides medical evaluation and treatment for patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), chronic bronchitis, asthma and alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency such as:

Coordinated, same day visits with allergists and pulmonologists for patients with asthma

Integrated care with thoracic surgeons for high-risk surgery patients with COPD, because:

• Lung cancer and COPD often occur together
• Optimizing the care of COPD prior to lung cancer surgery improves outcomes
• Lung volume reduction surgery (LVRS), when applied to appropriately selected patients, is a proven intervention to prolong and improve the quality-of-life of individuals living with COPD
• Screening for chronic sinus disease (often coexistent with obstructive lung disease) and assessments by otolaryngology (ENT) physicians

Advanced diagnostics

• Bronchoscopy
• State-of-the-art lung imaging

Integration with Pulmonary Rehabilitation

• Our American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation-accredited Pulmonary Rehabilitation program is housed at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, which is the number one rehabilitation hospital in America, where we provide full medical direction

Palliative Care in an Outpatient Setting

The Northwestern Asthma & COPD Program is among the first respiratory clinical programs in the United States to integrate formal palliative medicine in the outpatient arena.

• Aggressive treatment of symptoms that occur with advanced COPD is currently an unmet need in the care of patients with advanced lung disease
• The goal of the Northwestern Asthma & COPD Program is to help patients with respiratory disease live for as long as they can as well as they can; the goals of Palliative Medicine are the same with a specific focus on symptoms of breathlessness, anxiety, and the fear that can come when living with a chronic respiratory condition

Our Expertise

In addition to offering standard diagnostic and treatment options for asthma, we also offer expertise in less common lung problems that are often related to asthma and other obstructive lung disease.

Our expertise includes:

• Allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis and other causes of refractory asthma
• Immunodeficiency evaluations
• Alpha-1-Antitrypsin Deficiency
  • We are designated an Alpha-1-Antitrypsin Deficiency Clinical Resource Center by the Alpha-1 Foundation

Contact Us

If you have or think you may have asthma or COPD, we urge you to seek treatment as soon as possible. If you don’t have a physician, and you’d like to make an appointment with someone who understands asthma and COPD and how to successfully manage these conditions, please call our Asthma & COPD Program at 312-695-1800.

You may  also make an appointment by calling our Physician Referral Department at 1-877-926-4664, or you can request a first time appointment online.