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Dr. Y. Michael Shim, an esteemed physician-scientist who specializes in advanced pulmonary imaging and obstructive airway diseases, has been named chief of the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, effective April 1.

The division provides expert, comprehensive care for patients in the intensive care unit and for a range of pulmonary- and critical care-related conditions including asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), interstitial lung disease and lung infections. The division also conducts cutting-edge research in those areas and others such as acute lung injury, pulmonary hypertension and sepsis.

In his new role, Dr. Shim will lead a team of skilled physicians and scientists focused on advancing the group’s clinical care, research and education missions, including working collaboratively to support the growing translational research portfolio and increasing hands-on educational training to teach future leaders in the field. He will also seek to expand access to comprehensive pulmonary and advanced lung disease care across Weill Cornell Medicine-affiliated NewYork-Presbyterian campuses, working closely with the lung transplant team at NewYork-Presbyterian. He succeeds Dr. Dana Zappetti and Dr. Kyu Rhee, who led the division in an interim capacity.

Dr. Shim spent more than two decades at the University of Virginia (UVA), where he most recently served as a professor of medicine and professor of radiology. He also held the John L. Guerrant Endowed Professorship.

“We are thrilled to welcome Dr. Shim as our new chief of pulmonary and critical care medicine,” said Dr. Myles Wolf, chair of the Weill Department of Medicine and physician-in-chief at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center. “As an outstanding physician-scientist, Dr. Shim brings a vision for the division that builds on its strengths while expanding its impact in clinical programs, research and education. His leadership will position us at the forefront of emerging technologies and scientific advances that are reshaping the understanding and treatment of lung disease.”

“A driving factor for coming to Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian is the incredible opportunity to serve the community, providing the very best comprehensive care to New Yorkers with chronic lung conditions, together with a phenomenal group of dedicated faculty and staff,” said Dr. Shim, who was recruited to Weill Cornell Medicine as a professor of medicine. “Expanding outpatient pulmonary care services on the Upper East Side, Lower Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn establishes a system-wide approach to preventing, detecting and treating lung conditions early, while we continue to provide expert ICU and inpatient pulmonary care.”

A central focus of Dr. Shim’s career in recent years has been broadening access to medical services for patients with COPD and asthma—an urgent need in the United States that was exacerbated by COVID-19.

“Especially within the past five years after the COVID pandemic, there’s increased demand everywhere for good, accessible pulmonary care,” Dr. Shim said. “Improving health care for the community has always been a priority for me, and that goal aligns closely with the leadership vision at Weill Cornell Medicine and New York-Presbyterian.”

An innovative leader in advancing the management of pulmonary obstructive airway disease, Dr. Shim’s research focuses on developing and applying hyperpolarized Xenon gas MRI, which uses inhaled laser-polarized Xenon gas to produce high-resolution, 3D images of lung function without radiation.

“MRI using Xenon gas provides incredible pictures of lung function. transformative tool for understanding the pulmonary physiology of COPD, asthma, interstitial lung disease, lung transplantation and more,” he said. as helped us to understand variability among disease types.”

Dr. Shim was one of the key contributors on the Phase 3 clinical trial that led to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2022 to approve hyperpolarized Xenon gas as the first inhaled MRI contrast agent for evaluating lung ventilation.

“The question now is: ‘How can we integrate this technology to better understand what is driving a patient’s illness?’” he said. “This would help us individualize diagnostic and therapeutic approaches optimal for each patient.”

About Dr. Y. Michael Shim

Dr. Shim is board-certified in pulmonary disease, critical care medicine and internal medicine. He is a fellow of the American College of Chest Physicians and a member of the American Thoracic Society, the American College of Physicians and the Society of Hospital Medicine.

He received his medical degree from the Medical College of Virginia and completed a residency in internal medicine at Northwestern University. He then completed a clinical fellowship in pulmonary and critical care medicine at Yale University, where he also pursued an advanced fellowship in asthma and obstructive airway disease.

Dr. Shim joined the UVA faculty in 2004 as an assistant professor of medicine, rising to the position of professor of medicine and professor of radiology, and most recently serving as director of pulmonary rehabilitation and director of the Pulmonary Function Testing Laboratory. Under Dr. Shim’s leadership, the COPD specialty clinic at the University of Virginia in 2007 was named a Joint Commission certified center of excellence for advanced COPD care—making UVA the first U.S. academic medical center to earn this distinction.

An NIH-funded researcher, Dr. Shim, serves on NIH and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs-merit study sections and as a multi-principal or principal investigator on numerous R01 grants spanning lung imaging, COPD pathobiology, acute lung injury, vape-induced lung injury, sepsis and allograft rejection in lung transplantation. His research has been published in leading journals including Science, Nature, and the New England Journal of Medicine.

— Courtesy of Weill Cornell Medicine newsroom