UB is ranked among the nation’s top five in COPD research

BUFFALO, N.Y. – The University at Buffalo is one of the nation’s top five institutions for research on and treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

That’s according to a national ranking, which also lists Anne B. Curtis, MD, Charles and Mary Bauer Professor and chair, Department of Medicine and Sanjay Sethi, MD, professor of medicine, both in the UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, as top experts in their fields.

Published by Expertscape, the ranking uses algorithms to rank institutions, clinicians and researchers, based on detailed reviews of the past 10 years of scientific publications in PubMed in each medical specialty. The number of citations and a journal’s impact factor are among the metrics used to rank specialists and their institutions.

Along with UB, the other top institutions in COPD are Brigham and Women’s Hospital, the University of California, Los Angeles, The Johns Hopkins University and National Jewish Center.  

Curtis and Sethi conduct research at UB. Curtis treats patients through UBMD, the university’s physician practice plan, while Sethi’s clinical practice is at the Veterans Administration Western New York HealthCare System (Buffalo VA).

Curtis was named one of the world’s top 10 experts doing research on implantable defibrillators. She is one of the world's leading clinical cardiac electrophysiologists and an expert in cardiac arrhythmias. Her clinical research has significantly advanced knowledge of human cardiac electrophysiology and heart-rhythm abnormalities.

She has been principal investigator, co-investigator, sponsor or steering committee member on 85 research studies and clinical trials and has written more than 250 peer-reviewed manuscripts, book chapters, reviews and editorials. She also is the author of a book on cardiac pacing.

This year, Curtis was first author on a New England Journal of Medicine paper on the Block HF (Heart Failure) trial, which she led, demonstrating significant benefit from cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT).

Curtis received a 2010 Distinguished Fellowship Award from the International Academy of Cardiology. She has been a key contributor to guidelines on atrial fibrillation that are issued periodically by the American College of Cardiology Foundation/American Heart Association Task Force on Practice Guidelines.

Sethi was named one of the nation’s top five experts in COPD. He is vice chair of medicine for research, chief of the Division of Pulmonary/Critical Care/Sleep Medicine at UB and a staff physician in pulmonary/critical care/sleep medicine at the Buffalo VA.

Along with Timothy Murphy, MD, UB Distinguished Professor of Medicine, Sethi runs the COPD Study Clinic at the Buffalo VA, which enters its 20^th year in 2014. Murphy and Sethi have published widely on COPD, including research that fundamentally changed how clinicians treat bacterial exacerbations. Sethi also has worked on redefining the role and understanding mechanisms of infection in the pathogenesis of COPD and has led important clinical trials in the field.

He has co-authored more than 150 research articles, reviews and book chapters and is a member of the editorial board for publications such as PLOSOne, Respiratory Research and Current Respiratory Medicine Reviews.  He also served as a consultant for the GOLD guidelines, the global guidelines for the management of COPD.