For Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital’s new chief of pediatric pulmonology and sleep medicine, Patricia J. Dubin, MD, pursuing new treatments for respiratory issues is more than just a passion – its personal.

As a child, Dubin was diagnosed with asthma. As she grew older and honed in on a career in medicine, she knew wanted to find a way to help children with respiratory problems breathe easier. But for Dr. Dubin, it was more than her own experience that shaped her future. During her senior year of undergraduate studies, the 10-year-old daughter of a favorite professor, died. She had cystic fibrosis.

“It had a pretty profound effect on our entire campus, because we all kind of knew this little girl, and that was one of the first exposures that I really had to cystic fibrosis,” said Dr. Dubin. “When we look at our field, many people think pulmonary evolved out of a need to take care of patients with asthma and other types of breathing disorders, but in large part it evolved around the disease of cystic fibrosis.”

Durban is also an associate professor in the Department of Pediatrics in the College of Medicine at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC),

At Le Bonheur, she will focus on developing research, clinical and education programs in pediatric pulmonology and sleep medicine.

During the next year, Dubin will lead pulmonary and sleep medicine program development in the areas of asthma, cancer-related respiratory disease, hematology- related disease, primary ciliary dyskinesia (respiratory disease that is present at birth and causes permanent and irreversible respiratory damage if not identified early) and medically complex and technology-dependent children.