Name: So You Want to Be… PULMONOLOGIST [Ep. 53]
Uploaded: 2026-01-31T18:16:07.000Z
Duration: 11 min 20 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

So you want to be a pulmonologist, ridding the world of asthma one patient at a time?

Let's debunk the myths and misconceptions.

For this installment in so youo Want to Be, we're bringing our insider expert to you.

Pulmonologist Dr. Sahil Chopra will join me to give you a glimpse into the world of pulmonology.

He's quadruple board certified in internal medicine, critical care, pulmonary medicine and sleep medicine.

Pulmonology is a specialty focused on the respiratory system and diseases of the airway, lungs and chest wall such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, interstitial lung disease, pneumonia and lung cancers.

Pulmonologists also manage patients who require mechanical ventilation and other forms of life support.

Pulmonary medicine can be categorized in at least three different ways by practice setting, practice type, and

Pulmonologists can work in a variety of practice settings such as inpatient, outpatient and research.

With inpatient, pulmonologists focus on treating patients admitted to the hospital.

Most pulmonologists are trained in critical care, so they round in the icu, managing critically ill patients suffering from severe respiratory failure, including acute lung injury, acute respiratory distress syndrome or ards, severe severe pneumonia, COPD exacerbations and those on mechanical ventilation.

If on the general floor and not in the icu, they consult on patients admitted to the hospital who have developed respiratory complications such as asthma, pneumonia or copd.

They could also be involved in pre and post lung transplant care.

For hospitals that offer these programs, Outpatient focuses on managing patients in an office or clinic setting for chronic diseases such as asthma, cf, copd, cystic fibrosis, bronchiectasis and interstitial lung diseases like pulmonary fibrosis and sarcoidosis.

They evaluate patients with persistent respiratory symptoms, abnormal chest images such as masses or nodules, and

Pulmonologists may also screen for and manage lung cancer, coordinating with oncologists and thoracic surgeons to take biopsies and develop treatment plans.

Additionally, there are research and collaboration opportunities with startups, including companies that focus on health optimization, such as those that aim to improve breathing to enhance overall well being.

Next, pulmonologists can work in community, academic or private practices.

In the community, pulmonologists with training in critical care medicine serve as intensivists, leading the care of critically ill patients.

They may also be called to consult on hospitalized patients with breathing concerns.

Generally in academic settings, day to day work involves a combination of patient care, teaching and research, typically at a university hospital.

In private practice, pulmonologists focus primarily on clinical patient care outside of a university setting.

Subspecialization also distinguishes a pulmonologist after completing general pulmonary training of two to three years, which is itself a fellowship that follows three years of internal medicine.

There are several sub fellowships that a pulmonologist can pursue.

Each requires an additional year of training, with the exception of allergy and immunology, which is two to three years.

Interventional pulmonology focuses on performing procedures.

These specialists perform complex, minimally invasive procedures such as stent placements and bronchoscopies, where they use a camera to go into the airways to take samples or biopsies.

They also collaborate with other specialists to develop treatment plans.

Sleep medicine is an outpatient focused specialty involving sleep testing and managing patients with sleep disorders.

Sleep medicine is the subspecialty that I chose to pursue because of my exposure to a breathing condition during sleep called sleep apnea.

Now I run my own sleep clinic called Empower Sleep.

Contrary to the popular belief, sleep medicine is not about just a sleep study or sleep test.

It's about understanding the process of human physiology during a state of sleep, understanding the intricate rhythms of different organ systems, and

the profound impact that sleep has on our physical, emotional and cognitive health.

On a technical level, sleep medicine experts explore the nuances of various different sleep disorders from insomnia all the way to sleep apnea.

Pulmonologists can also specialize in treating sleep related breathing conditions.

Pulmonary hypertension is a highly specialized area that focuses on this specific and complex lung condition which is a disorder of the lung's blood vessels.

These specialists perform numerous procedures related to the lung's blood vessels or pulmonary vasculature and care for critically ill patients.

Lung transplant involves caring for lung transplant patients and is a busy and demanding specialty.

Patients are typically very ill, have a limited life expectancy, and

are frequently in and out of the hospital and icu.

Cystic fibrosis focuses on caring for patients with this congenital condition.

It often involves pediatric pulmonologists who manage children until they transition to adult care, a transition that is becoming more common as new medications extend patients lifespans.

Occupational and environmental lung disease is characterized as a research centric field.

Specialists often collaborate with large government organizations such as the CDC or nih.

Allergy and immunology means the pulmonologist is specialized in both pulmonary medicine and allergy immunology, allowing them to diagnose and treat a unique set of complex conditions where the respiratory system and the immune system significantly overlap.

Pulmonology isn't the only path to allergy immunology.

We took a deep dive into this career path in a previous video.

Check it out to determine whether becoming an allergist immunologist is a good fit for you on our so youo Want to Be playlist that now covers over 50 medical career paths.

Let's clear up some common misconceptions about pulmonology.

First off, there's a misconception that pulmonologists don't do procedures.

In fact, we perform several different outpatient elective and inpatient emergent procedures such as bronchoscopy.

In this procedure, using a thin tube with a camera that's inserted through the mouth through the nose, we can examine the airways and even obtain biopsies.

There's also endobronchial ultrasound or ebus, where an ultrasound is used to perform a needle aspiration of a lymph node or lung tissue.

Additionally, there is a thoracentesis, a medical procedure in which fluid is removed from a thin space between the chest wall and the lungs known as a pleural space using a needle.

Another misconception is that they only treat breathing disorders like asthma and copd.

In fact, they also treat conditions like bronchiectasis, cystic fibrosis, pulmonary embolism, sleep apnea and different forms of lung cancer.

That being said, the COVID pandemic increased public awareness of pulmonologists and pulmonary conditions so that there are fewer misconceptions than there were before 2020.

There are a few different ways to become a pulmonologist.

The most common is completing a three year internal medicine residency followed by a three year combined pulmonology and critical care fellowship which provides additional intensive care unit tr.

The less common path is three years of internal medicine followed by a two year general pulmonology fellowship.

However, after fellowship, physicians are not required to practice both pulmonology and critical care.

If you're interested in the pediatric route, you would complete a three year pediatric residency followed by a three year pediatric pulmonology fellowship.

And as far as compensation goes, pulmonology is at the higher end of the mid pack at $411,000 a year.

However, this will vary depending on the specific career path you take.

Before we dig into what's to love and not love about pulmonology, if you have a request for our next so youo Want to Be topic, leave a comment.

We collect every request and take it into consideration when choosing our topics.

There's a lot to love about Pulmonology first off, pulmonology offers a blend of inpatient and outpatient medicine, allowing doctors to care for patients across a wide spectrum of illness severity ranging from stable outpatients to critically ill patients in the icu.

Working with inpatients means longer hours, whereas outpatient work typically follows an 85 schedule with minimal call.

Many pulmonologists combine both, however, it is generally a busy specialty, not a lifestyle field like dermatology.

Most pulmonologists are also trained in critical care and often split their time between the ICU and general pulmonology duties.

This work is also quite fulfilling and gratifying.

Relieving a debilitating symptom like shortness of breath brings a great deal of gratitude from patients.

Pulmonologists also have the opportunity to use advanced cutting edge technology to perform complex and precise procedures.

For example, CT guided navigational bronchoscopy utilizes a patient's CT scan to create a GPS like system that guides a camera to a specific tiny lobe of the lung for biopsy.

I love pulmonary medicine because it allows me to practice both inpatient and and outpatient medicine.

There is a mix of both elective and emergent procedures.

When a pulmonologist works in the icu, it allows him to take care of critically ill patients who have very complex physiology.

If you're interested in Learning more from Dr. Chopra, he's helping me improve my sleep.

Over on The Kevin Jubbal, MD channel, we're comparing the data from the most popular sleep trackers like Aura and Ultra Human against my oneiro results a clinical grade PSG sleep monitor.

Of course, pulmonology is not for everyone and does come with its downside.

First, your patients will often frustrate you as you'll be treating patients with chronic pulmonary conditions like COPD or emphysema, conditions that are caused or worsened by ongoing behaviors such as smoking.

The challenge of helping your patients change these addictive self destructive behaviors cannot be overstated.

You'll also be dealing with many incurable chronic diseases.

COPD and interstitial lung disease cause permanent scarring and damage to the lungs that cannot be reversed.

As a result, the focus of treatment is often on managing the disease and its symptoms rather than curing it.

That said, on the positive side, managing a patient's chronic decline allows you to build a strong long term relationship with them which can be quite rewarding depending on your interest in patient interaction.

Another downside is the length of training with residency plus fellowship lasting five to six years.

While there are many other specialties with this length of training, pulmonologists make anywhere from 100 to $300,000 less than specialties with compar training lengths such as vascular surgery at 550k or plastic surgery at 620k.

I like to think of it as pulmonary and critical care.

If you're someone who loves working with your brain, enjoys doing procedures with your hands and is fascinated by the specialty of internal medicine then you should consider becoming a pulmonologist.

But if you hate being the detective internist and don't like doing procedures with your hands or you don't want to be in a high acuity workplace setting, then pulmonology is likely not a good fit for you.