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About Pediatric Pulmonology

The Section of Pediatric Pulmonology at Philippine Children’s Medical Center provides exemplary multidisciplinary inpatient and outpatient services for infants and children with acute and chronic respiratory problems.
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What We Offer

Achieving the highest standards in pediatric pulmonary medicine through the series of services and tests we offer, we can accurately diagnose and monitor your child’s condition, ensuring we deliver the most effective treatment.
We offer a range of non-invasive, painless and reasonably-priced tests to identify and evaluate your child’s condition. We collaborate with your child’s physician, making it easier to diagnose specific problems and plan the most effective treatment options/ scheme.
We perform all tests of high quality standards, and our staff’s more than 30 combined years of experience and practice in working with children indicate that we are the best resource and support system to respond to your child’s respiratory condition.

Programs & Services

Being a key referral center, our section has recently established the chronic lung disease program to allow patients with complicated pulmonary problems from different parts of the country be seen by our competent pediatric pulmonologists. The program caters to a spectrum of diseases affecting the airways and other lung structures and aims to aid in the diagnosis, treatment and improvement in the quality of life of patients with chronic lung disease to help them reach their full respiratory potential.

Included in this Program are People with:

Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia or Chronic Lung Disease of Infancy
Interstitial Lung Disease
Bronchiectasis
Post-COVID Pneumonia
Post-ARDS
Our team of experts work hand in hand with families to plan personalized therapy depending on the specific condition with a goal to offer the best care of the child’s respiratory health, growth, and nutrition.
Our pulmonary rehabilitation program is only one of the few recognized Respiratory Rehabilitation Programs for children in the country, and offers comprehensive inpatient and outpatient services for infants, children, and adolescents with chronic respiratory conditions.
This program aims to care for children who require medical devices to help them breathe, including assistive respiratory devices for cough and lung clearance, full and partial mechanical ventilation, non-invasive ventilatory support, and oxygen, including children who are brought home with medical equipment, training and guidance of the caretakers regarding home care, monitoring breathing, safety, and resuscitation.
This program also caters to hospitalized children with breathing assistance to transition back to home and school, wean from oxygen therapy and ventilator dependency, and advocate long-term follow-up care for prevention of acute respiratory illness.
Our pulmonary function test laboratory is fully equipped with a spirometer, Tidal Breathing Analysis, peak flow meters, Impulse Oscillometry (IOS), Body Plethysmograph and Fractional exhaled nitric oxide test (FeNO).
Bronchoprovocative studies are done using exercise challenge test (treadmill and free run)
Pulse oximetry studies are available both for spot and continuous studies
Induced sputum for diagnostic purposes using ultrasonic nebulization is readily available
Our section is currently the only Pediatric Pulmonology program in the country that has included POCUS in its range of services. Point of care lung ultrasound gives respiratory clinicians a huge advantage in real time bedside assessment of patients with respiratory signs and symptoms. It enables quick, effective and accurate diagnosis that is highly useful in detecting pulmonary pathology such as pneumothorax, consolidation, atelectasis, pleural effusion and pneumonia.
We provide pediatric flexible fibreoptic nasopharyngoscopy and bronchoscopy services, including broncho-alveolar lavage. The unit offers procedures that closely evaluate the lungs and airways, obtain samples, and treat specific airway and lung conditions.
We serve children with all types of lung disorders, from acute to chronic, common to rare. Among the pulmonary concerns that the general pulmonology service caters to, the most commonly referred respiratory symptoms and diseases are chronic cough, wheezing, bronchial asthma, recurrent respiratory infections, complicated pneumonia and tuberculosis. Because of the wide range of respiratory health problems we encounter, our team of pediatric pulmonologists closely collaborates with your child’s physician to evaluate each patient and expertly develop a treatment plan.
Our section’s Health Care Transition Program, in partnership with Philippine Heart Center Division of Pulmonology OPD clinic, aims to facilitate the seamless transfer of our patients aged 16 years old and above diagnosed to have chronic respiratory illnesses to adult care. This is with the goal of ensuring that the healthcare needs of these adolescents are properly addressed continuously and that they will be emotionally, psychologically and physically ready to transfer to the new facility.
In 1998, our Respiratory Therapy (RT) unit was established and in the following year, the Respiratory Therapy Internship Program was spearheaded by Dr. Cristan Q. Cabanilla and Rigmor Rivera-Dygico, RTRP, approved under the directorship of Dr. Lillian V. Lee, to provide specialty training in neonatal and pediatric respiratory care.
Since then, the pediatric respiratory therapy training program has been sought after by higher education institutions offering BS Respiratory Therapy. Currently, our RT internship program is the only one in the country that caters specifically to the pediatric age group.

Our respiratory therapists work together with our pulmonary physicians in formulating and delivering effective pulmonary rehabilitation strategies. They apply various airway clearance techniques, aerosol therapy, and aid in ventilator trouble shooting and critical care.
To date, we have 13 respiratory therapy staff and a pulmonary clerk, 7 affiliated RT schools including state universities from different regions of the Philippines. Our respiratory therapists are experts in delivering the best critical care and perform pulmonary diagnostics needed by the Filipino children.
Polysomnography imposes a big challenge in Pediatrics because children have limited ability to cooperate with the setup and mainly most have trouble sleeping in a strange environment. There are however steps that a sleep laboratory can take to ease the burden on the child, the family and technicians to improve the diagnostic quality of the polysomnogram.
The Pediatric Sleep Laboratory will provide a comprehensive range of evaluation and treatment for children who experience sleepiness or sleeplessness. Its goal will be to obtain the best solutions for the child’s sleep issues, monitor its progress and develop a personalised treatment plan putting the needs of the child first.

Offered Services

Consultations with Board Certified Pediatric Sleep Medicine Specialists
Pediatric sleep studies including diagnostic baseline overnight polysomnogram, PAP titration, and Multiple Sleep Latency Tests (MSLT)

Training Program

The Philippine Children’s Medical Center Section of Pulmonology is one of the leading centers for training, research and service in Pediatric Pulmonology in the country. It was established in July 1, 1987 with the primary mission of being the premiere center of excellence for pulmonary specialty care in children guided by dynamic programs and equipped with the state-of-the-art technology for institutional growth and development. A pioneer institution to offer fellowship training in pediatric pulmonology in the Philippines which was accredited by the Philippine College of Chest Physicians in 1987 and by the Philippine Academy of Pediatric Pulmonologists in 1993. To date, the section has produced more than 50 pediatric pulmonologists offering their services in the different parts of the country.
The 2-year fellowship training program in Pediatric Pulmonology provides a clinical education and training that is innovative, appropriate and responsive to the needs of the Filipino children with lung disease. The fellows in training are guided by 13 highly motivated and competent consultant staff with varied fields of expertise.

As part of the training program, the fellows rotate in the pulmonary diagnostic laboratory, where they perform pulmonary function test such as spirometry, impulse oscillometry, tidal breathing analysis and infant plethysmography with the assistance of the section’s highly skilled respiratory therapists. For invasive procedures such as bronchoscopy, percutaneous lung or intrathoracic tumor biopsy, senior fellows perform the procedure with the supervision of the pulmonology consultant. Procedures done with ultrasound or CT scan guidance are done in conjunction with the Department of Radiology. Trainees collaborate closely with other pediatric subspecialties particularly pediatric intensive care unit, neonatal intensive care unit, radiology, ENT, and TCVS. Recently, the use of Point Of Care Ultrasound (POCUS) to aid in the diagnosis of different lung and pleural diseases was added to our program.

The fellowship training program also include pulmonary rehabilitation program which is a multidisciplinary program that aims to promote a comprehensive care to a child whose lung function is adversely affected by the disease. Recently, Chronic Lung Disease Clinic was established which aims to diagnose, treat and improve the quality of life of children with chronic lung diseases.
Pulmonary Rehabilitation Unit
Our section is committed in producing researches that are at par with international standards. Several past researches have been presented and published in both local and foreign conventions and publications. Fellows are required to submit a completed research at the end of their training. This is presented during the hospital annual research forum and in both local and international conferences.
As we cope through the changing times, we continue to develop and strengthen our programs to address the need of every Filipino child with lung disease.

Medical Services

Contact Information

Telephone:(02) 8588-9900 local 253
Cellphone:0917-8361860

Consult with Us

In the setting of the current COVID-19 pandemic, the Section of Pulmonary Medicine now offers online teleconsultation. To schedule a consult, visit our Facebook page
Pcmc Pulmo Pedia