Physician specialty
Pulmonology
At a glance
- Practicing in the U.S.
- 15,173
- Per 100,000 residents
- 4.5
- Women
- 24%
- Median years since graduating
- 23
Training path
- College (bachelor’s degree) 4 years
- Medical school (MD or DO) 4 years
- Internal medicine residency 3 years
- Pulmonary (or pulmonary and critical care) fellowship 2–3 years
Training after medical school: 5–6 years. From the start of college: about 13–14 years.
Usual minimum program lengths from ACGME program requirements. Some doctors take extra research years or a second fellowship.
Who they are
- MD (DOs make up the rest) 92%
- Women 24%
- Graduated 35 or more years ago 26%
- Offer telehealth 43%
- Accept Medicare’s approved amount 97%
Sex and credentials from NPPES. Graduation year, telehealth and Medicare assignment from Medicare Care Compare, which covers clinicians enrolled in Medicare.
Where they practice
What they do most for Medicare patients
- Established patient office or other outpatient visit, 30-39 minutes 2,026,846
- Subsequent hospital care with moderate levelof medical decision making, if using time, at least 50 minutes 1,401,376
- Subsequent hospital care with moderate levelof medical decision making, if using time, at least 35 minutes 1,273,108
- Critical care, first 30-74 minutes 1,045,835
- Test to examine how well the lungs exchange gases 745,824
- Established patient office or other outpatient visit, 20-29 minutes 720,070
- Test to measure expiratory airflow and volume changes before and after medication administration 545,303
- Test to determine lung volumes using sensors 476,258
- Test to measure expiratory airflow and volume 452,969
- Established patient office or other outpatient visit, 40-54 minutes 356,314
- Initial hospital care with moderate level of medical decision making, if using time, at least 75 minutes 341,885
- New patient office or other outpatient visit, 45-59 minutes 310,269
Services billed to traditional Medicare in 2023 (Physician and Other Practitioners data); drugs given in the office are left out.
What they prescribe most
- Albuterol Sulfate (Ventolin Hfa, Proair Digihaler, Proair Respiclick) 14.5%
- Fluticasone/Umeclidin/Vilanter (Trelegy Ellipta) 12.6%
- Montelukast Sodium (Singulair) 6.3%
- Prednisone (Rayos) 5.7%
- Fluticasone Propion/Salmeterol (Advair Diskus, Fluticasone-Salmeterol Hfa, Advair Hfa) 4.4%
- Fluticasone/Vilanterol (Breo Ellipta, Fluticasone-Vilanterol) 4.2%
- Budesonide/Formoterol Fumarate (Budesonide-Formoterol Fumarate, Symbicort, Breyna) 3.7%
- Azithromycin (Azasite, Zithromax) 3.1%
- Fluticasone Propionate (Flovent Hfa, Flovent Diskus, Xhance) 3.0%
- Budesonide/Glycopyr/Formoterol (Breztri Aerosphere) 2.9%
- Tiotropium Bromide (Spiriva Handihaler, Spiriva Respimat) 2.7%
- Umeclidinium Brm/Vilanterol Tr (Anoro Ellipta) 2.6%
- Tiotropium Br/Olodaterol Hcl (Stiolto Respimat) 1.6%
- Umeclidinium Bromide (Incruse Ellipta) 1.1%
- Azelastine Hcl 1.0%
Share of this specialty’s Medicare Part D prescriptions in 2024, including refills. Select a drug to see which of these clinicians prescribe it most, and where.
Hospitals where the most work
- Cleveland Clinic Cleveland, OH 136 Pulmonology at Cleveland Clinic
- NYU Langone Hospitals New York, NY 125 Pulmonology at NYU Langone Hospitals
- Mayo Clinic Hospital Rochester Rochester, MN 106 Pulmonology at Mayo Clinic Hospital Rochester
- Brigham and Women's Hospital Boston, MA 96 Pulmonology at Brigham and Women's Hospital
- Hospital of Univ of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA 85 Pulmonology at Hospital of Univ of Pennsylvania
- New York-Presbyterian Hospital New York, NY 84 Pulmonology at New York-Presbyterian Hospital
- North Shore University Hospital Manhasset, NY 79 Pulmonology at North Shore University Hospital
- Massachusetts General Hospital Boston, MA 79 Pulmonology at Massachusetts General Hospital
- Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center Los Angeles, CA 78 Pulmonology at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center
- Northwestern Memorial Hospital Chicago, IL 65 Pulmonology at Northwestern Memorial Hospital
Clinicians who list the hospital in Medicare Care Compare. The number opens the list of who works there.
Schools they graduated from most
- Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine 105
- Ohio State University College of Medicine 98
- New York University School of Medicine 95
- New York Medical College 90
- Indiana University School of Medicine 87
- Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University 85
- University of Kansas School of Med (kc/wich/sal) 81
- Wayne State University School of Medicine 81
- University of Minnesota Medical School 79
- New York College of Osteo Medicine of New York Institute of Technology 78
From Medicare Care Compare (Medicare-enrolled clinicians only).
Industry payments
Drug and device makers reported $45.9M in general payments to 8,962 clinicians in Pulmonology in 2025. See who received the most
Source: CMS Open Payments, program year 2025. A payment is not evidence of wrongdoing.
Research in this field
U.S. researchers published 26,233 articles and reviews in pulmonary and respiratory medicine in 2024–2026.
Journals with the most U.S. papers
- American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine American Thoracic Society 2,739
- Journal of Thoracic Oncology Elsevier BV 813
- Journal of Cystic Fibrosis Elsevier BV 633
- Cureus Cureus, Inc. 547
- Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology Elsevier BV 486
- Journal of the American College of Cardiology Elsevier BV 363
- Journal of Clinical Oncology Lippincott Williams & Wilkins 356
- Pediatric Pulmonology Wiley 352
- CHEST Journal Elsevier BV 329
- Critical Care Medicine Lippincott Williams & Wilkins 320
Most-cited recent papers
- Non–Small Cell Lung Cancer, Version 4.2024 (opens in a new tab) Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, 2024 · cited 919 times
- Non-small-cell lung cancer (opens in a new tab) Nature Reviews Disease Primers, 2024 · cited 690 times · free to read
- Perioperative Nivolumab in Resectable Lung Cancer (opens in a new tab) New England Journal of Medicine, 2024 · cited 574 times · free to read
- Definition, classification and diagnosis of pulmonary hypertension (opens in a new tab) European Respiratory Journal, 2024 · cited 528 times · free to read
- Guidelines for the Echocardiographic Assessment of the Right Heart in Adults and Special Considerations in Pulmonary Hypertension: Recommendations from the American Society of Echocardiography (opens in a new tab) Journal of the American Society of Echocardiography, 2025 · cited 501 times · free to read
- New promises and challenges in the treatment of advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (opens in a new tab) The Lancet, 2024 · cited 491 times
- Interstitial Lung Disease (opens in a new tab) JAMA, 2024 · cited 429 times
- The International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer Lung Cancer Staging Project: Proposals for Revision of the TNM Stage Groups in the Forthcoming (Ninth) Edition of the TNM Classification for Lung Cancer (opens in a new tab) Journal of Thoracic Oncology, 2024 · cited 412 times · free to read
From OpenAlex, an open index of research papers. Papers with at least one author at a U.S. institution, classified by subject; the subject covers the whole field, so related specialties share these lists. Citation counts change daily.
Sources: CMS NPPES (counts, sex, credentials), Medicare Care Compare (schools, graduation years, hospitals, telehealth), CMS Medicare Physician & Other Practitioners (2023) and Part D Prescribers (2024), CMS Open Payments (2025), ACGME program requirements (training length), OpenAlex (research), U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2020–2024 (population).