Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine

Larry G. Johnson, M.D.
Division Director

The division provides high quality state of the art care to inpatients and outpatients with disorders of pulmonary disease, sleep medicine, and critical care medicine. We have a diverse group of faculty physicians, subspecialty trainees, physician extenders, administrative staff, and research staff devoted to the UAMS mission. Services provided include inpatient pulmonary consultation, evaluation and management of patients requiring care in the medical intensive units, diagnostic and therapeutic procedures in benign and malignant pulmonary disease, and extensive outpatient management of a variety of pulmonary and sleep medicine disorders. Areas of special expertise include chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, pulmonary hypertension, interstitial lung disease, asthma and related disorders, cystic fibrosis, non-CF bronchiectasis, lung cancer diagnosis, and interventional pulmonology. Aside from traditional pulmonary procedures, our interventional pulmonologists also offer tunneled pleural catheter placement, EBUS bronchoscopy for lung cancer diagnosis and staging, EBUS diagnosis of benign disease, robotic bronchoscopy/ navigational bronchoscopy, Medical thoracoscopy for pleural disease, bronchoscopic lung volume reduction and percutaneous tracheostomy.

Educating the next generation of pulmonary of pulmonary disease, critical care medicine, and interventional pulmonology physicians is the major focus of our teaching program. We have the only ACGME-accredited training programs in pulmonary disease and critical care medicine, individual and combined, in the State of Arkansas. The division also has the state’s only American Association of Bronchology and Interventional Pulmonology-accredited training program in interventional pulmonology. Many of the pulmonologists and critical care physicians practicing in central Arkansas, across our state, and in the region completed their subspecialty training at UAMS. Division faculty are also active in the training the next generation of doctors and internal medicine physicians by instructing medical students in the classroom and on the medical wards, and by providing bedside instruction, didactic teaching, and clinical supervision of internal medicine residents.

The division looks to the future with its participation in clinical and translational studies of new therapies for lung disease and critical care medicine disorders. We work extensively and collaboratively with the UAMS Clinical and Translational Research Institute to bring state of the art clinical trials to the UAMS campus that may benefit our patients in the future. One recent example was our participation in the early and late phase clinical trials and the post marketing safety studies of a gene modulator drug in patients with cystic fibrosis, which has become a major advance in care for this patient population.

We believe the future is bright for patients with pulmonary disease, sleep medicine, and critical illness. The division is committed to working with others within the institution, the state, and the region to improve the health of our Arkansans affected by these disorders.

Larry G. Johnson, M.D.

Professor of Internal Medicine
Director, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine
Adult Cystic Fibrosis Program Director
Vice Chair for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion