Division of Chest and Critical Care

The Division of Chest and Critical Care provides expert care for a broad spectrum of pulmonary disease and sleep issues. Our pulmonary specialists diagnose and manage benign and malignant conditions, including thromboembolic disease, interstitial lung disease, and pulmonary hypertension. Our intensivists also provide 24/7 in-house coverage at Scripps hospitals, serving adult medical-surgical ICU populations including transplants, cardiothoracic surgery, neurology/neurosurgery, and level 1 trauma. A number of our pulmonologists work in collaboration with Scripps MD Anderson Cancer Center to diagnose and treat lung cancer, including interventional pulmonology.

We also work with patients suffering from sleep disorders of varying complexities. Our team is on staff at the Viterbi Family Sleep Center, one of the nation’s most historied sleep centers, where they provide multidisciplinary care dedicated to comprehensive diagnosis and management of all sleep disorders. Our practitioners offer extensive home and inpatient diagnostics to identify and, where possible, begin to treat, sleep apnea, insomnia, restless legs syndrome (RLS), and other neurologically-based sleep issues such as narcolepsy and circadian rhythm abnormalities. We also provide non-invasive ventilator support for patients with chronic respiratory failure, particularly in the setting of neurologic or neuromuscular disorders.

Our Division has a robust academic program. We have weekly conferences encompassing evidence-based literature review, and case reviews to help advance patient care to the highest level possible. We have developed co-management conferences with other divisions, such as Hepatology, Transplant, Trauma, Cardiology and Palliative care. Due to our multidisciplinary engagement we have developed protocols addressing complex clinical situations that have been adopted system wide.

Some of our faculty hold teaching positions at UCSD and Scripps Research. Our Division members are active in professional societies and hold leadership positions at American Thoracic Society, California Thoracic Society and National Association for Medical Direction of Respiratory Care.

Areas of particular interest and expertise are noted below:

Jacqueline Chang, MD (Division Head)

  • Interstitial lung disease
  • Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis

Marlene Barnhouse, MD

  • Pain Medicine
  • Anesthesia

Ayana Boyd-King, MD (Chairman of Internal Medicine at Scripps La Jolla)

Carrie Chun, MD

  • Medical Ethics
  • Medical Education

Clinton Colaco, MD

  • Neuromuscular Disorder and Non-invasive Mechanical Ventilation

Konrad Davis, MD

  • Telemedicine

Achal Dhupa, MD

  • Medical Ethics

Darlene Elias, MD (Director of Coumadin Clinic)

  • Thromboembolic disease
  • Clinical and Basic Science Research

Steven Escobar, MD

  • Interventional Pulmonary

Kenneth Grudko, MD

Nancy Hsu, MD

Ben Illum, MD

  • Pain Medicine
  • Anesthesia
  • TEE use in the Intensive Care Unit
  • Neurocritical Care

Shazia Jamil, MD (Head, Academic Affairs)

  • Critical Care Management and Clinical Practice Protocol Development for COVID-19
  • Translational Research
  • Medical Education
  • Critical Care Management of Liver Diseases and Transplant
  • Founding Director, Circadian Rhythms Sleep Disorders and Chronotherapy Clinic

Jason Lee, MD

  • Medical Education

Derek Loewy, PhD

  • Phototherapy in insomnia disorders

Bao Luu, MD (Director of Respiratory Care)

Russell Miller, MD

David Norton, MD

John Steven Poceta, MD

  • Restless legs

Krishnan Rangarajan, MD

William Ring, MD (Head, section of Critical Care Medicine)

Kenneth Serio, MD

Matthews Sisitki, MD

Maida Soghikian, MD

Kelly Fan MD

David Kwon, MD

  • Interventional Pulmonology

Steven Zhao, MD

  • Pulmonary embolism/deep vein thrombosis

Victoria Christison, PA
Stephen Thurston, PA
Nancy Ludwick, NP
Anne Marie Martland, NP
Ashley Shelton, NP
Ekaterina Troitskaya, NP
Alexander Lukic, NP

Featured Services

  • Adult medical-surgical ICU care

  • Pulmonary function testing

  • Thromboembolic disease

  • Interstitial lung disease

  • Advanced minimally invasive diagnostic pulmonary and pleural procedures

  • Interventional pulmonary and pleural procedures

  • Pulmonary hypertension

  • Sleep apnea

  • Insomnia

  • Restless legs syndrome (RLS)

  • Narcolepsy and other neurologically based sleep issues

  • Circadian Rhythm Sleep Disorders

  • Non-invasive ventilator support for patients with chronic respiratory failure

Recognitions & Awards

  • Division members have been named Top Doctors by the San Diego County Medical Society and San Diego Magazine; many of them several times over.

  • Dr. Jacqueline Chang was honored with the William H and Ruth Black Employee Achievement Award at Scripps Green Hospital (2015), Top Doctors 2018

  • Dr. Shazia Jamil has been named America’s Top Physician multiple times from Consumer Research Council of America

  • Dr. Kenneth Grudko, Dr. Shazia Jamil and Dr. Bao Luu have received Outstanding Teaching Award from Scripps Clinic Internal Medicine Residency Program

  • Dr. Darlene Elias holds faculty position at Scripps Research

  • Dr. Kenneth Serio, Dr. Shazia Jamil and Dr. Carrie Chun hold faculty teaching positions for medical students at University of California San Diego School of Medicine

  • Dr. Shazia Jamil co-founded and serves as Course Director for San Diego Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine Case Conference and Clinical Updates, a quarterly live CME conference

  • Dr. Shazia Jamil is Associate Editor of Review of Critical Care Medicine, book by American Thoracic Society

  • Dr Shazia Jamil serves as Co-Chair of Education Committee at California Thoracic Society and Chair of Sleep Medicine Core Curriculum at Education Committee of American Thoracic Society

  • Dr Shazia Jamil is the Co-Founder and Chair of Rapid Response Team of American Thoracic Society, which addresses emerging lung health issues nationally and globally such as new viral infections including COVID-19, and vaping-induced lung injury

  • Dr Kenneth Serio developed a clinical educational website MD Nexus (www.mdnxs.com), which he keeps current with evidence based literature

  • Dr Kenneth Grudko has been actively involved in Respiratory Therapists’ education and is the Medical Director, School of Healthcare – Respiratory Therapy of California College San Diego and Independence University, Salt Lake City, Utah

  • Dr Shazia Jamil received national recognition by being named Outstanding Clinician of the Year for 2022 by American Thoracic Society.

  • Dr Shazia Jamil has received Outstanding Clinician Award by California Thoracic Society.

  • Many of our division members (Drs. Ken Serio, Shazia Jamil, Darlene Elias, Carrie Chun, Krish Rangarajan, and Jason Lee) are adjunct faculty at UC San Diego.
  • Dr. Shazia Jamil serves on the Education Committee and chairs the sleep core curriculum for the American Thoracic Society. Dr Jamil also co-chairs the Education Committee for the California Thoracic Society
  • Dr. Jacqueline Chang serves on the Pulmonary Examination Committee for the American Board of Internal Medicine.
  • We assist in training pulmonary/critical care fellows through our GME affiliations with outside institutions, including the US (Balboa) Naval Medical Center San Diego. Our division is also actively involved in graduate medical education of the Scripps Clinic residents in both the ambulatory setting and the ICU.

For more information or to apply, please visit the Graduate Medical Education page.

The clinical and translational research projects of the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine encompass a group of studies in pulmonary and interventional pulmonary medicine. 

Minimally invasive pulmonary procedures are increasingly recognized as the current standard of care for diagnosing lung cancer and a variety of nonmalignant lung diseases. The creation of a clinical database as a resource to promote quality assurance, control and guide future directions of types of procedures performed and offered.  

The Scripps Venous Thrombosis Registry cohort has plasma and DNA specimens collected from over 110 patients and 220 controls which are the basis of scientific collaborations with Scripps Research. The purpose is the discovery of novel procoagulant factors and which have the potential to guide new therapies for patient care. 

Pulmonary Embolism Outcomes Research started as an assessment of hospital-based treatment and has extended to ambulatory management of acute low risk pulmonary embolism patients. Clinical assessment for low risk patients has the goal to improve care of patients with acute pulmonary embolism.

Interstitial lung disease (ILD) is an increasingly recognized inflammatory condition of the lung which causes permanent fibrosis and respiratory insufficiency. A clinical database is being used as a resource to promote analysis of the clinical characteristics, diagnosis patterns, treatments and outcomes of the ILD patient population at Scripps Clinic.

SEE ALL SCMG RESEARCH