In the fields of pediatric pulmonology and pediatric sleep therapy, researchers and clinicians have known for a long time that their patients are distinct from adults, from the perspective of testing and responsiveness to medications.

This year’s Pediatric Year in Review, from 2:15 to 3:45 p.m. PT, Sunday, May 18, in the Moscone Center, Room 3002 (West Building, Level 3), will examine new insights gained about the distinct aspects of respiratory disease in children, and how they continue to manifest in adults, by focusing on key topics affecting children’s health globally: nutrition, origins of obstructive lung disease, and sickle cell disease. The session will also focus on workforce development of pediatric pulmonary specialists within the context of the current dearth in this field.

“We are covering the Society’s basic science core requirements of focusing on developmental origins of respiratory disease, but we cannot take care of these issues if we don’t have the right workforce” said Deepa Rastogi, MD, MS, MBBS, ATSF, Children’s Hospital at Montefiore, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and chair of this session. “So, we will look at the science and then the workforce for our field in order to continue to address these medical issues.”

She noted that medical fields in general have placed increasing emphasis on life-course research. The first three sections of the 2025 Pediatric Year in Review will reinforce that trend.

Dr. Rastogi said this year’s Pediatric Year in Review was also created in dialogue with topics from recent ATS International Conference sessions.

“It is timely to have people talk about origin of airway diseases that persist into adulthood, given that they are the most common of pediatric diseases; nutrition, because obesity is on the increase and there is increased recognition of its impact on the pulmonary system; and then sickle cell, because it was not covered recently in our Pediatric Year in Review sessions and it has had a lot of scientific development, including gene therapy, in the last few years,” she explained.

The session concludes with what Dr. Rastogi described as a bright note, a discussion of a 2024 study that suggests the supply of pediatric pulmonology subspecialists in the United States will keep up with increased demand and expected population growth. She said she hopes this presentation encourages discussions about whether the trend appears to be global and how attendees evaluate workforce development and support in their regions to enable continued recruitment of trainees in the field.

As a chair, past panelist, presenter, and attendee, Dr. Rastogi remarked that it is always difficult to gauge how much impact one session or presentation can have on your work and career. But she says she has worked to create a session whose content and literature can provide essential information and contacts. For young professionals, these can be crucial resources in guiding patient management and consideration of areas of future investigations. For established professionals, these experiences can provide unique cross-pollination of ideas and practices across subspecialties, expertise, and global communities.

“That is why I absolutely love the ATS International Conference,” said Dr. Rastogi. “My area of interest is obesity and asthma. I am constantly scouring the literature and constantly keeping on top of things, but no one can know everything. Every time I go to ATS, I feel like I come back having learned something new, whether it is a new technique, a new application, or something that is being used routinely in another subspecialty but is novel to the field of pediatric pulmonology.”

For a full schedule of conference events, visit ats2025.d365.events. To see more conference-related news and coverage of sessions and events, visit atsconferencenews.org.