Surya Bhatt, M.D.
Photography: Steve Wood Surya Bhatt, M.D., an associate professor in the University of Alabama at Birmingham Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine and endowed professor in airways disease, has been elected as a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation.
The nonprofit medical honor society comprises over 3,000 physician-scientists from all medical specialties, with a mission to promote the advancement of research that enhances the understanding of diseases and improve their treatment.
“It is an honor to be elected to the ASCI and to be part of such a distinguished community of physician-scientists,” Bhatt said. “I am dedicated to pushing the boundaries of pulmonary medicine research through novel and innovative approaches. I am also eager to collaborate with my fellow ASCI members in furthering scientific discoveries.”
Bhatt is a physician-scientist with a focus on research in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. He serves as the medical director of the UAB Pulmonary Function and Exercise Physiology Lab and the UAB Pulmonary Rehabilitation Program. He also directs the UAB Telehealth Pulmonary Rehabilitation Program — a novel program directed at providing COPD patients with pulmonary rehabilitation at home with the help of telemonitoring and new technology.
Additionally, he established the UAB Lung Imaging Lab for translational research, leading to state-of-the-art lung image processing capabilities at UAB. His groundbreaking work in lung imaging illustrating how airway fractal dimension predicts respiratory morbidity and mortality in COPD was captured in the cover of the Journal of Clinical Investigation in September 2018.