Michael Duncan, MD, is chief of pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine at Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas, part of Baylor Scott & White Health. His expertise includes lung transplantation, pulmonary hypertension and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). Dr. Duncan also has experience in cardiovascular critical care.
“Pulmonary medicine and critical care encompass everything I love about medicine. It involves caring for very ill patients with very complex physiologic states,” Dr. Duncan says. “Advances in medications have allowed for greater long-term survival for diseases that were quickly fatal even a decade ago. Outcomes have gone from very high five-year mortality to some patients living for decades with advanced lung disease. And we also have the option of lung transplant if the medications are not effective.”
Dr. Duncan attended medical school at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston.
He completed his internship and residency in internal medicine/pediatrics at Indiana University Hospital in Indianapolis. He went on to complete a fellowship in pulmonary disease and critical care medicine at Indiana University School of Medicine.
Shair Ahmed, MD, is a board-certified thoracic surgeon on the medical staff at Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas. His expertise includes general thoracic surgery, robotics, thoracic oncology, lung transplantation and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation.
“Thoracic surgery is a unique field of medicine that encompasses a wide range of care. From lung transplantation and thoracic oncology to benign diseases of the stomach and esophagus, like gastroesophageal reflux disease and hiatal hernias,” Dr. Ahmed says. “As a thoracic surgeon, I leverage a range of surgical skills, advanced robotic technology and other minimally invasive techniques to find the right solution for each patient. The breadth of care this specialty allows me to provide is one of the main reasons I chose this field.”
Dr. Ahmed attended the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Tucson. He completed his internship and residency in general surgery at Brown University Medical School in Providence, R.I. Dr. Ahmed went on to complete a fellowship in cardiothoracic surgery at Emory University in Atlanta. In addition to his clinical practice, Dr. Ahmed plays an active role in teaching Baylor Scott & White general surgery residents and cardiothoracic surgery fellows.
Tiana Endicott-Yazdani, MD, PhD, is a transplant pulmonologist on the medical staff at Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas . After attending medical school at Texas A&M College of Medicine, she completed her internship and residency in internal medicine at Baylor Dallas. She went on to complete a fellowship in pulmonary and critical care medicine at Baylor Dallas. Dr. Endicott-Yazdani then spent a year training with the transplant group at Baylor Dallas.
“Originally, I was going to do infectious diseases, but transplant pulmonology hits all of the boxes for me,” Dr. Endicott-Yazdani says. “It’s very complicated and diverse. There is a lot of ongoing research, and patient care involves inpatient, outpatient and the ICU. It keeps me learning all along the way.
“My doctorate is in microbiology, so I still have a lot of interest on the infectious side,” she continues. “Lung transplant patients in particular tend to be some of the more immunosuppressed of the solid organ transplants. So, it’s challenging to keep up with the new bugs we encounter, as well as new treatments and therapies. Long term, I hope to investigate the pulmonary microbiome.”
