The “Pediatric Year in Review – The Magic Kingdom of Pediatric Pulmonary,” at the ATS 2026 International Conference, which will be held from 2:15–3:45 p.m. ET, Sunday, May 17, in the Orange County Convention Center, Room W311E (OCCC West, Level 3), will examine impactful and timely discoveries affecting pediatric patients.
“The Pediatric Year in Review session is held every year to update the members of the Pediatrics Assembly on the new developments and research in the fields of pediatric pulmonary, critical care, and neonatal medicine,” said Christian Rosas-Salazar, MD, MPH, ATSF, associate professor of pediatrics at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and chair of the scientific symposium and the ATS Pediatric Program Committee.
The session will begin with a presentation on emerging research in bronchopulmonary dysplasia and pulmonary hypertension from Laurie Christine Eldredge, MD, PhD, assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington School of Medicine and physician-scientist at the Seattle Children’s Center for Respiratory Biology and Therapeutics.
Dr. Rosas-Salazar said that bronchopulmonary dysplasia and pulmonary hypertension are timely topics, adding, “We recently had a new medication, for the first time in a long while, that has been approved for pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) in adults, which we hope will be available for children soon.”
The MOONBEAM clinical trial, for instance, is evaluating sotatercept in children with PAH. Sotatercept was initially approved in 2024 for treating adults with PAH to improve exercise capacity and WHO functional class. The U.S. label for sotatercept was expanded in late 2025 to include improvements in clinical worsening events, including hospitalization for PAH, lung transplantation, and death.
Dr. Rosas-Salazar explained the significance of the second topic — pulmonary function testing (PFT). “There have been multiple updates on the reference equations we use for PFTs. New guidelines have also been published on how best to interpret PFT results, which prompted us to select the second topic,” he said, alluding to the recent guidance document developed by the ATS Pulmonary Function Test Committee that proposed standardized language for interpreting PFTs.
Ariel Berlinski, MD, ATSF, professor of pediatrics at the University of Arkansas Medical Sciences, will share the updates on PFTs.
“The third presentation will be focused on the origins and management of childhood asthma. Research on childhood asthma continues to expand, with new medications becoming available, new phenotypes being described, and new evidence linking risk factors with disease, over recent years,” Dr. Rosas-Salazar said.
Leonard B. Bacharier, MD, the Janie Robinson and John Moore Lee Chair in Pediatrics at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, will focus on new perspectives on the origins and management of childhood asthma.
“The last presentation will focus on clinical and translational advances in childhood interstitial lung diseases (ILDs),” Dr. Rosas-Salazar said. “We anticipate an update on the ATS guidelines for childhood interstitial lung diseases being published soon.”
Rebekah Joy Nevel, MD, MSc, assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Missouri, will provide an overview of updates on clinical and translational advances in childhood ILDs.
Dr. Rosas-Salazar said, “For each topic, we have invited an international expert in the field who will be presenting approximately five papers that were recently published on these topics. The experts will briefly discuss these articles, their strengths and limitations, and the implications and impact of the studies on our practice.”
The session will also include Maintenance of Certification (MOC) questions, Dr. Rosas-Salazar noted, adding, “We are particularly excited about the lineup of speakers; some of the most influential experts in the field are part of this session.”
A summary of the articles discussed by each speaker will be available for attendees as a handout accessible on the virtual platform and on-site at the session.
“The Pediatric Year in Review has traditionally been one of the most well-attended sessions for the Pediatrics Assembly,” Dr. Rosas-Salazar said, “I am really excited about this year’s session.”
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