Katrina Ann Steiling MD

Biography

Dr. Steiling is a Pulmonary/Critical Care physician investigator with expertise in program implementation and health disparities research. She completed her fellowship training in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at Boston University Medical Center, and concurrently completed a Master of Science in Bioinformatics through the Boston University College of Engineering. She has devoted her career improving the effective detection and treatment of lung diseases caused by cigarette smoking.

Dr. Steiling’s research career began with a focus on biomarker development for smoking-induced lung diseases such as lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Using the airway field of injury hypothesis, which posits that cigarette smoking induces molecular changes throughout the respiratory tract, she studied alterations in the airway transcriptome that reflect the presence, susceptibility, and progression of smoking-induced lung diseases. Her laboratory used whole-genome expression profiling of the bronchial airway epithelium to describe the relationship between upper and lower airway gene expression, and leveraged this information to develop clinically relevant biomarkers of lung cancer and COPD, and other diseases that affect the lung.

Dr. Steiling transitioned her research focus and used the skills gained in large-scale genomics research to develop, implement, and study lung cancer screening and lung nodule evaluation programs. She implemented and oversees two large clinical programs related to lung health at Boston Medical Center, a tertiary urban safety-net hospital that provides most care to low-income, underserved and vulnerable patient populations. She developed, implemented, and directs the Lung Cancer Screening Program, which brings together multi-disciplinary expertise to provide evidence-based low-dose CT screening to high-risk patients. She also developed and directs the Lung Nodule Clinic, a sub-specialty clinic that provides patient-centered evidence-based care for incidental pulmonary nodules detected in high-risk settings. Her current research is an outgrowth of her passion to mitigate health disparities through the development and implementation of lung cancer screening and lung nodule evaluation programs that serve diverse patient populations. Her research in this area has led to high-impact publications describing significant racial, socioeconomic, and intersectional disparities in lung cancer screening and lung nodule management.

Dr. Steiling sees patients in the Lung Nodule Clinic, multi-disciplinary Thoracic Oncology Clinic and attends in the Medical Intensive Care Unit at Boston Medical Center.