Nirav Bhakta, MD

After completion of medical school and a PhD at Stanford University School of Medicine, Dr. Bhakta joined the UCSF Internal Medicine Residency program. With an undergraduate background in engineering and graduate work on T cell development, he was drawn to pulmonary and critical care medicine early given the combination of physiology and immunology present in this specialty. He also found the challenges in working with patients and families on critical illness rewarding. After completing fellowship in pulmonary and critical care medicine and a postdoctoral fellowship both at UCSF, Dr. Bhakta joined the faculty in 2013.

Clinical activities:
He attends in the Moffitt-Long Intensive Care Units, sees patients in the Chest Faculty Practice clinic on Parnassus Avenue where he also supervises fellows in their outpatient practice, and interprets pulmonary function tests as an attending in the Adult Pulmonary Function Laboratory, where he is also the Associate Director. He also sees patients in collaboration with the neuromuscular diseases clinic to manage respiratory systems and respiratory failure.

Research activities:
Research is another important and personally rewarding part of his career. He leads human trials to obtain clinical data and tissue samples to understand the molecular basis for variations in the presentation of asthma. His other work advances the application of pulmonary function testing. Through his experience in programming and quantitative modeling, he is able to work with genomic and detailed pulmonary function data. His research activities not only contribute to the scientific and medical communities, but also synergize with his delivery of evidence-based, patient-centered medicine.

Teaching activities:
He finds that his clinical and research activities enhance his performance as an educator. He is the Director of Education of the UCSF Adult Pulmonary Function Laboratory, where he oversees the education of MD pulmonary and critical care fellows in pulmonary physiology. In addition to this responsibility for the curriculum, he gives lectures and undertakes one-on-one teaching with fellows while interpreting tests. He gives recurring lectures to students, residents, and fellows, and engages in bedside teaching when attending in the Intensive Care Units. He is a site director and Coach in the Pulmonary Fellowship Training Program. To stay current, he participates in manuscript reviews for journals and has authored book chapters on asthma phenotypes, asthma exacerbations, and pulmonary function testing.

Professional Activities:
As a member of the American Thoracic Society (ATS) Pulmonary Function Testing (PFT) Committee, he is committed to disseminating best practices for pulmonary function testing through technical standards and guidelines. He is co-chairing an update to the ATS/ERS lung volumes measurement technical standard. He also co-chaired an ATS Workshop to address the use of race/ethnicity in PFT interpretation.