Pediatric Asthma Center
The Division of Respiratory and Sleep Medicine at the Children's Hospital at Montefiore Einstein (CHAM) houses a specialized multidisciplinary Pediatric Asthma Center, where we treat what is the most common chronic disease of childhood, as well as the number one cause of pediatric hospital admissions. The Bronx has one of the highest rates of childhood asthma in the country. Thousands of children are rushed to the CHAM Emergency Department for specialized asthma treatment each year. Our teams of Pediatric Respiratory Medicine and Allergy Immunology experts comprised of physicians, nurse practitioners, health educators, social workers, and nutritionists, are committed to preventing these emergency room visits and hospitalizations. We take a unique approach to asthma treatment, based on the idea that it is a controllable condition and every child with asthma should be able to do everything their peers without asthma are doing.
The Asthma Center is led by Dr. Deepa Rastogi, MD, the lung specialist, and is staffed by Dr. Mahmoud Abu Zahra, another lung specialist, Dr. Natalie Trotto, an allergy immunology specialist, Ms. Taylor DiBuono, pulmonary nurse practitioner, Ms. Natalia Almonte, the health educator, and Ms. Susanne Quansah, the social worker. The Center offers a comprehensive evaluation of your child’s asthma by lung specialists and allergy specialists to identify the main factors playing a role in poor control of disease. Over a span of 3-4 visits, we will help you understand your child’s lung function, and allergies and factors that are contributing to poor asthma control. We will review with you the best way to keep your child’s lung function in the normal range, allow normal physical activity and prevent sleepless nights and missed school days due to coughing or wheezing.
While there is no single test for asthma, we can diagnosis it by taking a patient's history, performing a physical examination and conducting pulmonary function tests and exercise tests. We invite parents to play an important role, as the observations made by caregivers can help doctors to make a proper diagnosis.
After we have diagnosed asthma, we implement a care management plan that often includes specialized environmental management, such as providing children with a smoke free environment, and daily medication to protect the lungs, as well as medication to have on hand in case of an attack. We aim to help children and their caregivers identify possible triggers, in order to avoid full-fledged asthma attacks and the associated cumulative damage, and to help children to have the highest quality of life possible.
Asthma and Obesity: We offer a specialized program for children with asthma who are obese. We promote physical activity and assessment with a team of bariatric surgeons thereby facilitating weight loss and improved asthma.
Asthma and Allergy: We identify the allergy profile of children and help the families manage it better. In cases where changes in the home environment are helpful but do not completely take away the problem, we administer a specialized medication that decreases the body’s reaction to substances that the child is allergic to.
Asthma and the Community: We are actively involved in asthma programs in the community and advocate improved access to care for children with asthma.