[00:00:00] non: You are listening to the ATS Breathe Easy podcast brought to you by the American Thoracic Society.
[00:00:18] Amy: So welcome everyone to the ATS Breathe Easy podcast with one of your hosts Amy Attaway. And I'm here with Dr. Raed Dweik who is this year's American Thoracic Society President, and he will be talking about his plans for ATS this year. So as an introduction Dr. Dweik is the chief of the Integrated Hospital Care Institute at Cleveland Clinic, which oversees over 1200 physicians and scientists in Ohio, Florida, London, and Abu Dhabi.
It includes five departments including pulmonary critical care. Dr. Dweik is also a physician scientist. He's a professor of medicine at Cleveland Clinic. Lerner College of Medicine has had [00:01:00] continuous NIH funding since 2002 with a longstanding interest in pulmonary hypertension, asthma, and exhaled nitric oxide.
He's also the director of multiple programs which really promote early career scientists and physician scientists, including our KL two program and our T 32 program. So anyway, you wanted to thank you Dr. Dweik for being here on the podcast.
[00:01:25] Raed: Well, thank you so much for having me.
[00:01:27] Amy: So I think just kind of diving into some of the questions we were wondering, so I I if you on your journey with, and kind of what inspired you to become president?
[00:01:39] Raed: Yeah. Thank you so much for having me and for, for the introduction. So I, my first meeting to ATS was when I was a fellow in 1994 in Boston. And you know, I think as I mentioned in my address to the, at a SI, it was total confusion for me. I was completely [00:02:00] confused or trying to kind of. You know, get to sessions.
I missed some sessions so that, but then I really haven't missed a meeting since then. So I was very inspired by the meeting. And I've been coming to the meeting now for 30 for 30 plus years. And you know, to me that's the place where, you know, I meet people. That's the place where I presented my science.
That's the place I. That's some place I met mentors and later on I started mentoring people as well. So to me, my journey at a s started with that, just presenting my abstracts, my.
Which I encourage again, everybody who wants to be involved in ATS is joining the assem. So I started joining the assemblies. You know, it's a long story for me because I couldn't find the right assembly right away. So I joined one then the other, and I moved around about half the assemblies until I settled on my current assembly, which is the problem of circulation.
But that helped me learn quite a bit about the ATFs. And then after that, really [00:03:00] the next phase was getting involved in committees. And committees really are. A lot of what what the work for ATS uh happens. And so once you learn about these, I really continue to be inspired by the mission of ATS to help, you know, the world breathe better.
And I wanted to give more and give back. And that's why I applied. And, uh. A course.
[00:03:36] Amy: That's great. I, I remember you speaking about this, the confusion at first, like your first meeting, which I can, I can definitely relate to and I feel like a lot of people probably can just because there's so much happening at once, and I think joining an assembly really helped me as well. And I think the more just, you know.
You start to get to know people, they start to get to know you at some point. You're, you're, you felt like you [00:04:00] didn't know ev anyone, and now all of a sudden you feel like there's everyone. Yeah. Yeah. A familiar face.
[00:04:07] non: Did you miss the ATS 2025 International Conference in San Francisco? We've got you covered with the ATS conference highlights pack.
You can access inspiring presentations as well as valuable clinical insights from pulmonary critical care and sleep sessions. Members get a discount, so become an ATS member or renew your membership. To take advantage of these savings, go to conference.thoracic.org. Today.
[00:04:33] Amy: One of the things I, we kind of wanted to ask you because you, you've been secretary and then president, elected now president.
Is there something that's really surprised you kind of taking on that role that you weren't expecting?
[00:04:49] Raed: I can say one of the, I mean, surprising traits actually of being in the leadership and executive committee of ATS is working with the ATS staff and their leaders. This is [00:05:00] something, 'cause I know they're helpful 'cause I worked with them in assemblies and committees 'cause they support the work of the assemblies and the committees.
But just the sheer amount of work that they do and their dedication day in and day out. You know, they support the assemblies, they support the committees. They put on this amazing conference every year just to beehive of activity all year long. And just to get to know them and work with them closely.
It's one of these things that I privilege being on the leadership of.
S staff and what they do every day to support this organization. I'm just in awe in what they are capable of doing. There's nothing almost they can't do if you get the right person at the ATS and know, most of us know them through the committees and assemblies, but there's so much more work that goes on behind the scenes to make sure that ATS means at the top of its game.
[00:05:47] Amy: Mm-hmm. Yeah. I'm always amazed how the meeting, I, I mean, just the conference comes together. It's just, there's so, so much happening, so much organization, and I think I took it for granted before, but just thinking about all the [00:06:00] moving parts to, to actually make the actual conference at the end of the Exactly.
That's how I felt
[00:06:05] Raed: before the leadership. Okay. The conference happens, you show up, everything is great, but then the, the sheer amount of work behind the scenes that happens is just unbelievable and amazing.
[00:06:14] Amy: Mm-hmm. So no, that's, I totally agree. And so we were also, there's kind of similar questions, but we were kind of wondering what your vision was for ATS and maybe some, what are some of the challenges that you're thinking of this coming year?
[00:06:33] Raed: So there's a great thing about ATS now as organization is that we have a strategic framework and that was not always the case. I remember the years early on in ATS where every president comes in and just upends the whole strategy. Now their focus is this, or our focus is that. And then all initiatives from the previous year get kind of put on hold and new initiatives get in.
But a few years ago, I think some of [00:07:00] our former presidents and executive committee members came together and decided to really come up with a strategy for ats. Now, hopefully everybody's familiar with, it's on our website. It's about supporting science, supporting careers, helping patients, you know, all the things that we expect from our organization like ours.
And so our, our strategy is set. We modify it, we tweak it every year. The executive committee with the president and the board, we adjust it based on what's going on. So that makes it kind of easier for a new president coming in. You don't have to really to develop a whole new strategy just for a year.
'cause you are president only for a year. So it's not really. A good idea to kind of turn the organization every year in a different direction. But I do have some things nuances for how I wanna approach our strategy. And yeah, a couple of them I think I have in mind. One is to really maintain the premier status of ATS as the premier society in respiratory medicine.
And we are, and we need to continue to do the, there's a lot of competition out there, a lot of other small and [00:08:00] large societies competing for. But I still believe that ATS is the place where people wanna come and present their research, wanna connect with their colleagues. So that's something I think it's top of mind for me to maintain ATS as a premier society.
The other one is membership. I know we all societies focus on membership, but I'd like ATSI think we are like that, but I think we can do better in being a big tent where everybody feels at home at ATS. My mind, clinicians, scientists mid-career, early career, senior investigators, you know educators, clinicians US international members.
I want everybody to feel this is a place where they can. Contribute. This is a place where they belong and they can, you know, make a difference. So these are the two things that I'd like to focus on this coming year. And also, of course, you mentioned the challenges there. Probably, probably every president thinks their year is the [00:09:00] most challenging, but I think probably it's hard to argue that this year is challenging to lead anything.
Whether you're leading a division or a department, an institute, or an organization, or a professional society, just because of the uncertainty of what was going on around us, whether it's clinical reimbursement, funding for research, you know, all the things that are running around. So I think this is, that's the biggest challenge that I think uniquely face us this year.
We have long challenges of taking of respiratory chronic illnesses. But I think this year is fact. Things like funding and.
[00:09:44] Amy: Yeah, we, we actually, that was one of the things we wanted to talk to you about and we actually have a podcast coming up next week with Dr. Josh Bessel about like NIH funding in, in particular, but I know that was the arena. Our past president, Dr. Petra [00:10:00] that was one of the things that she had kind of mentioned as president was more A-T-A-A-T-S based grant funding.
She kind of talked about the friends of arena. Program. Yeah. Which seemed like a great a great kind of way to kind of help, help with that funding aspect.
[00:10:18] Raed: Absolutely. And I think that ATS can play a small role. We can't replace all the funding. Of course, federal funding is huge, but we can do our part in supporting our members.
And I think here is where philanthropy plays a huge role. You know, our membership due and journal income and conference income is almost just as enough to keep us running as an organization. So to give out research grants, we rely heavily on our own grants. Partnering with other organizations that have money and they wanna partner with us, but also most importantly, philanthropy.
So we had I was glad to see that the research benefit at ATS was very well attended this year and that raises money directly for research. [00:11:00] I think it's a brilliant idea for Irena to kind of put the friends of I out there to raise funding. That's all gonna go to research and many of our members donate regularly.
I. I see those every week and I send thank you notes for those who donate and that money goes. Investigators who really care.
We tryuh, allocate money to research. At a s Actually this year we are allocating more than ever just because of the fact with philanthropy and we continue that trend and give more and more every year.
[00:11:38] Amy: Oh, that's great. I was, it was really nice to hear her talk about that in her in her concluding remarks that her program.
I, I also think going back to international membership, I think that's one of the things I really enjoy about the ATS conference is meeting people from other countries. And I always try to, if someone's like at my poster [00:12:00] and we're kind of getting to talk about them, I always try to talk to them and, you know, welcome them to the conference.
To coming to coming to America from their, their country. We're curious you know, you've really kind of spent a lot of your career helping early career physicians and scientists and is there any advice? I think you had talked about that an assembly was really important to join. Do you have any other thoughts on how to support early career physicians and scientists?
[00:12:28] Raed: Yeah, that's absolutely. I think first come to the meeting, right? If you can't come to the meeting, I'm not gonna meet anybody. So I think coming to the meeting every year it would be probably the, the starting point. And I know at the beginning, as I said, it may be confusing from the meeting you miss, maybe more than you attend.
But the more you attend the meeting, the more you get to know the cadence and where things are and what's and then you start identifying your people. So. This is a great place to network. You know, you [00:13:00] come, so in my career, for example, I first would be presenting my science. I would be nervous who's gonna stop my by, by my poster, who's gonna come to my talk?
But then these people, you are nervous about them coming are the ones who end up helping you because they come and they see the great work that you're doing. They can help you along the way. They become mentors or collaborators. So that's something I encourage people to do and network. Don't hide. You know, I think some people, like, I know I'm an introvert by design.
I know it may not seem like it now becoming ATS president, but I think it's important to get out of your shell at ATS and go to posters, go to talks, engage the speakers, engage the people who come to.
My career, I thinks one networking. You if you're a clinician, you can meet scientists. If you're a scientist, you can meet clinicians and both and [00:14:00] and also educators. So I think there's really no other meeting I can think of where there's such a critical mass of all of these. But some meetings are more clinically oriented, some are more research oriented, some are more education oriented.
I think a s has all of my opinions.
And just the sheer volume and number of people who come. And as you mentioned, the the places they come from, an international conference, people from all over and travel. To other society meetings. One of the biggest requests for them is they wanna come more to ats, you know, was just in Japan recently.
They were asking, I think you were together in Japan and they were one, one of the big sessions there. Amy, I know you get a great presentation. There is more of them want to come to ATS, they worry about the language barrier, so we help them. Okay. Like how can we help? We went to a couple of meetings in South America.
The same thing. [00:15:00] They, everybody recognizes a s is the place to be. They just, we need to identify their barriers and make sure to lower them. That's our role as leadership in a, is to make sure it's easy to come to a.
[00:15:13] Amy: Yeah, I was, I'm, I was so impressed. So I mean, you know, there's with our international members, sometimes there's a language barrier, so that's even harder, like to know all the scientific words and putting yourself out there.
I'm always really impressed when I, I see these scientists from other countries really come to ATS and I'm really excited that they're there and yeah, I agree. Getting, I think the more you, if you're an introvert the more you. Go to conferences and kind of put yourself out there. I think you just kind of get used to it.
That's my 2 cents.
[00:15:46] Raed: Absolutely. Just do it. Practice, practice, practice, just to get outta your shell and talk to people and it's, you'll find quickly that it's not that scary.
[00:15:54] Amy: Yeah. Yeah. We did wanna ask you, 'cause that I think at ATS you the San Francisco [00:16:00] one we saw you in arena in Waymo. Yeah.
Yeah. So we, of wondering if you had any excited things you're excited about in technological advancements in the.
[00:16:15] Raed: Yeah, it's funny that you say that actually in Arabic, my name, one of the meanings has multiple meanings, but one of them is pioneer. Somebody who really just goes ahead of the gun. So maybe they, there's some science saying that the name may affect the person.
I don't know. Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't. But I do like to explore new things. I I am an early adopter of technology. Of course then if it doesn't work, you move on. But at least you know if it works or if it doesn't work. So when I saw the way more cars in San Francisco and the way from the airport, I said, I'm gonna get one of these, you and we, and that literally the same day we got in one with Irene and it was actually was a lot of fun.
So that's uh really I think technology, there's a lot happening and, uh.
Innovation summit [00:17:00] at ATS, which starts before the meeting. There's so much going on there, you know, whether it's technology or new drugs or biologics. So the, the field is exciting now, I think field of pulmonary and respiratory medicine in general whether it's AI related or new compounds. So I think really there's so many things going on.
I'm very very excited about you know. Disease modifying drugs coming up for pulmonary hypertension and IOD There are biologics now, you know, asthma, biologics are established and there are new ones coming all the time. Bronchoscopy like lung volume reduction surgery, and, you know in end endoscopic, there's so many of those things and AI and critical care is, is taking off.
It's almost like the lists, day and times seen what works and what doesn't. That's, that's how it.
[00:17:56] Amy: Yeah. Yeah, that was we've actually had two podcasts on [00:18:00] ai in medicine. So I first, I think first was from the perspective of like, you know, how you do your research or how, how your, you know, your manuscript writing, things like that.
But then the other one was in medical care. Yeah. And so I, I think I, I mean, it's, and it's only to me, I I just attended this the multi workshop and AI is just kind of, it keeps, to me, it, it seems like it keeps accelerating, like the technology. So even.
[00:18:31] Raed: We've deployed a couple of AI things. We have a module of AI to detect sepsis early, for example, it's already deployed here.
It's an AI model. We have a model to assess preoperative risk and how to determine, you know, what kind of care you need pre and post-op. So this is here to stay. Of course, AI is here to stay, and I think it's a matter of. My approach to all these new technologies ish, you know how can we, what problem it solves for us.
I [00:19:00] think I like it when I have a problem and I find the technology or AI solution to it. I struggle when a company comes to me. It happens often. Is. They have a solution looking for a problem, like, we have this product, can you use it? It's like, you know, you could have checked with me before. So I think early involvement, I think of our physicians and scientists in, in technologies would help us get better technologies.
I think it's better to have a solution for a problem than have, you know, start with a problem and find a solution instead of starting with a solution and then go shopping for a problem, which I think is more common than I like to see.
[00:19:36] Amy: Mm-hmm. Yeah, I, I, I agree. I, we also have the ai helps with the charting.
Like it will kind of listen and will have you used it, this
[00:19:48] Raed: AI scribe? Have you used it? Yeah, it's amazing actually.
[00:19:52] Amy: Yeah. Yeah. I'm, I, I, I think it's very good for some things especially like in GI, giving patients instructions. Uh. So I, I [00:20:00] do like it for that, but I think you d you definitely have to double check it.
Yeah, of course. Oversight, I think with AI of course, is important.
It's good.
Is there anything, have your priority planning the next meeting in Orlando, is there anything to mention about that? Or,
[00:20:18] Raed: Orlando's gonna be exciting, so I wanna encourage everybody to pick their plans, submit their posters, your abstracts, your your ideas.
For Orlando, I think we haven't been there in a while. I think it's gonna be exciting. Hopefully many of our. It easier for many of our European colleagues to come over as well because it's closer to them for flights. But of course, we'll have the same outstanding conference we always do, which is all the things that we're expecting.
The poster sessions, the plenary sessions, the and all the the speakers and the poster discussions. I'm hoping that we'll try, uh.[00:21:00]
More of an advisory role to the committee, to the conference chairs. But I'm hoping that by then in Orlando, we'll have some ideas of how to help our members navigate all this uncertainty that's happening in, in, around us, in medicine and in the world. And, uh.
We seem to be surrounded by crises now. It's like one crisis after another. And I use the Chinese wisdom there where the word crisis actually in Chinese is made of two symbols. One for opportunity and one for danger. I. So I think while we're surrounded by all these crises, I think there are also opportunities for us as an organization to step up and support and help our members and try to make sense of all the uncertainty that is surrounding us.
Us as an organization, but the members to engage as well, you know, and [00:22:00] I think one thing I closed my remarks with is it's fair for all of us to ask what ATS can do for us, but I like also members to think what they can do for ats. It's very important I think, for us as members. Support and sustain ATS as an organization.
So it's around for generations to come for our future in clinicians, scientists, and educators in the respiratory field. And I think it's an obligation for us to, to maintain the organization and make sure a s strive moving forward.
[00:22:31] Amy: I've, I've always appreciated the sense of community. So even if we have these challenges, at least we can talk to each other, communicate with each other and plan.
That kind of helps if you have your network on how, how to, you know deal with these issues. So that's one of the things I've always really appreciated about ATS.
Absolutely. Absolutely.
[00:22:54] Amy: Is there anything else you wanted to discuss or.
[00:22:59] Raed: [00:23:00] I think that's good. We, we addressed a lot of the things.
There's a lot to talk about. I can talk about ATS all day long, you know, I think, but I think we hit, we definitely hit the high points and really, I wanna encourage people, you know, at this time not to be discouraged. I encourage them not to be discouraged, you know, it's especially for the researchers out there that they feel the pinch of NIH funding.
Somebody's gonna, trainees ee. Just, you know, don't give up. Just keep trying. Persistence pays off, and somebody is gonna get funded. It might as well be you. So keep up the the good work and keep putting your nose with the grindstone. Do good science, good patient care, education, whatever your field is, just keep at it and focus on your, on your job and your career and everything will be okay.
[00:23:49] Amy: Thank you. That's really nice to hear, I think, for all of our members. So thank you Dr. Dweik for participating in our podcast. And then just to give a quick plug. So next week [00:24:00] we'll actually be speaking about the NIH cuts and grant funding, their impact. So we'll have guests Dr. Josh Fessel and Sade Afolabi.
So looking forward to hearing that next week.
[00:24:18] non: Thank you for joining us today. To learn more, visit our website@thoracic.org. Find more ATS Breathe Easy podcast on Transistor, YouTube, apple podcasts and Spotify. Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe, so you never miss a show.