Rhode Island Hospital Interstitial Lung Disease Program

The Rhode Island Hospital Interstitial Lung Disease Program, affiliated with the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, specializes in providing compassionate, comprehensive care to persons with interstitial lung diseases. We take a state-of-the-art, multidisciplinary approach to ILDs, relying on a team of experienced pulmonologists, thoracic radiologists, pulmonary pathologists and thoracic surgeons to provide the most accurate diagnosis and best treatment plan for each individual patient.

The RIH ILD Program is led by Dr. Barry Shea, an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Brown. Dr. Shea completed his Pulmonary and Critical Care Fellowship training in the Harvard combined program, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship studying the biology of lung fibrosis at Massachusetts General Hospital. He subsequently joined the faculty at Harvard Medical School and MGH, continuing his research in lung fibrosis and caring for patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and other ILDs. Dr. Shea was recruited to Brown and Rhode Island Hospital in 2014 to establish the RIH ILD Program. 

In addition to providing outstanding patient care, the RIH ILD Program also seeks to advance the understanding of interstitial lung diseases, particularly those that result in pulmonary fibrosis (i.e. scarring), with the ultimate goal of helping to develop new, more effective treatments for these diseases. Accordingly, we have an active clinical research program, offering patients the opportunity to participate in investigational drug trials and other clinical studies. We also collaborate closely with the basic science laboratories of Dr. Jack Elias, Dean of the Alpert Medical School, and Dr. Chun Geun Lee, widely recognized and world leaders in the study of lung fibrosis.