Victor E. Ortega, M.D., Ph.D.

Victor E. Ortega, M.D., PhD, is a pulmonary disease specialist and a genetic epidemiologist with a specialty interest in respiratory airways diseases.

His clinical focus includes:

• Expertise in the characterization and individualized management of asthma, especially asthma that is severe or difficult to control.
• Expertise in the diagnosis and management of bronchiectasis caused by allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis, impaired immunity, and impaired airway ciliary clearance (primary ciliary dyskinesia).
• Expertise in the diagnosis and management of early-onset chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), emphysema, and bronchiectasis caused by alpha1-antitrypsin deficiency.
• Expertise in the diagnosis of undiagnosed or unresolved diseases of the respiratory airways, sometimes through the use of genotyping or gene sequencing technologies.
• Complex coordination of multi-disciplinary clinical and research teams for the diagnosis, individualized management, and study of unresolved, undiagnosed, and orphan lung airway diseases impacting the airways.

He leads genomic research studies across multiple different network funded by the National Institutes of Health National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute focused on how variation in an individual's genes can influence or alter the risk for more severe asthma, COPD, emphysema, and impaired response to commonly used drugs (a line of research called pharmacogenetics). His research champions ethnic and racial diversity to improve inclusion in genetic studies focused on understanding health disparities.