The mission of the Division of Pulmonary and Sleep Medicine is to improve the lives of children with breathing and sleep disorders through equitable high-quality subspecialty clinical care, transformative and sustainable research, and mentorship of the next generation of pediatric pulmonary and sleep physician leaders, working through a diversity, equity and inclusion lens.
The Division of Pulmonary and Sleep Medicine is committed to viewing all aspects of our work through a lens of justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI). This means actively seeking and supporting the recruitment of diverse faculty, staff, students, and leadership. This also means addressing barriers to care created by our patients’ social needs. We work to identify the chronic effects of structural racism on children's health. We strive to be a division where difficult conversations are welcome, where concerns are met with action, and where anyone, regardless of their race, gender, sexuality, faith, or other identities can feel safe, heard, and included.
In the past two years, our division has made large gains toward these goals. In 2021, representatives from our faculty, nursing, and administrative groups began to volunteer their time to create a JEDI Task Force that works to cultivate and foster an inclusive culture. This group's purpose is to create and execute actionable efforts to overcome barriers within our division.
JEDI Taskforce Mission, Goals
The purpose of the JEDI Task Force is to identify barriers, develop solutions, and lead initiatives which will improve equity, diversity, and inclusion within the Division. We meet monthly to discuss strategies to achieve our outlined goals:
- Improving the quality of care for all patients, regardless of race, language spoken, gender, sexual orientation, cultural beliefs, and religion by increasing equity through education and services.
- Focusing on issues that we have control over and that we have the ability to change within our division.
- Providing resources to our Division for continuing education about health disparities within the medical system and how we can learn and take action to address them.
The Pediatric Pulmonary and Sleep Division uses a multidisciplinary model of patient care. In addition to seeing the physician, nurse practitioner, or physician assistant during the clinic visit, other team members including nutritionists, social workers, nurse educators, and respiratory therapists are available for consultation. We conduct Pulmonary clinics at Seattle Children’s Hospital’s main campus and regional sitesspecializing in diagnosis and management of chronic respiratory complaints, asthma, cystic fibrosis, primary ciliary dyskinesia, bronchopulmonary dysplasia, tracheostomy and ventilation. Our providers also travel to clinics in Eastern Washington and Alaska, and collaborate in multi-specialty clinics caring for patients with sickle cell disease, complex scoliosis, congenital diaphragmatic hernia, neuromuscular and aerodigestive disorders. We have an active flexible bronchoscopy program and assist in the management of hospitalized patients at Seattle Children’s main campus. The Sleep Medicine program conducts clinics at several regional sites, and has a robust telemedicine program supporting children with general sleep disorders, insomnia, hypersomnia, movement disorders and complex sleep disordered breathing. The accredited sleep laboratory, which is the largest pediatric-specific sleep lab in the Pacific Northwest, is located in Bellevue. Pulmonary and Sleep faculty are available for consultation and assistance in providing care to children across the Pacific Northwest.
Providers can refer patients to these clinics using the Seattle Children’s Hospital referral process.
For Pulmonary appointments, please call: (206) 987-2174, option 1
For Sleep Medicine appointments, please call: (206) 987-5072 option 1
The Division of Pulmonary and Sleep Medicine is engaged in transformational basic, clinical and translational research across the age spectrum. We are a national leader in pediatric respiratory and sleep scholarship, conducting multidisciplinary studies that span several research locations in Seattle and beyond, including the Seattle Children’s Research Institute’s Center for Respiratory Biology and Therapeutics and the University of Washington. Our efforts include basic, laboratory-based investigations, clinical trials, observational clinical and translational studies, and data-driven analyses, as well as work in implementation science, quality improvement and medical education domains; fellows are frequently welcome to participate in these studies. Examples of ongoing research by Pulmonary faculty and our colleagues include: bronchopulmonary dysplasia, lung injury, asthma, wildfire smoke exposure, health disparities in cystic fibrosis and ventilatory support, implementation science, respiratory viral infection and prevention, aerosolized drug delivery, chronic lung infection (due to cystic fibrosis, tracheostomy, bronchiectasis, and primary ciliary dyskinesia), antibiotic therapies for respiratory disease, and gene therapy. Examples of current Sleep-based research interests include bench-to-bedside circadian biology, sleep disordered breathing, insomnias and movement disorders.
The Division of Pulmonary and Sleep Medicine (University of Washington School of Medicine/Seattle Children’s) has an accredited 3-year Pediatric Pulmonary Fellowship Program and participates in the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP). The Division is one of 6 federally-funded Pediatric Pulmonary Center training grant sites, committed to the professional development and academic training of those working in multidisciplinary Pediatric Pulmonary clinics. The Division also participates in training Sleep Medicine fellows in pediatric-specific and general sleep medicine tracks who are completing an accredited 1-year Sleep Medicine Fellowship Program at the University of Washington. Fellows have access to the extensive resources, including formal classes and certification programs, at the University of Washington and Seattle Children’s. We encourage students and trainees with an interest in pulmonary or sleep medicine to inquire about opportunities to engage in clinical shadowing or research projects.
For more information, please visit the Pediatric Pulmonary Fellowship and Sleep Medicine Fellowship webpages.
Terri A. Laguna, MD, MSCS, ATSF
Division Head, Pulmonary and Sleep Medicine Professor Principal Investigator, Center for Respiratory Biology and Therapeutics
Seattle Children’s Hospital
4800 Sand Point Way NE
Box 359300; MS OC.7.720
Seattle, WA 98105
(206) 987-2174