Above: Mark Dransfield, M.D., Division Director of Pulmonaray, Allergy, and Critical Care and Professor. 

The Department of Medicine is delighted to announce Mark Dransfield, M.D., will serve as the next Director of the UAB Division of Pulmonary Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine.

Dr. Dransfield has already demonstrated exemplary leadership while serving as the divisions’ interim director for the past 11 months. With his guidance and steady support, the division was able to navigate the exhausting demands on the front lines of intensive care during the pandemic without sacrificing the educational and research missions of the division. 

Dr. Dransfield is Professor of Medicine and holds the William C. Bailey Endowed Chair in Pulmonary Disease. He is a nationally renowned expert in COPD and has been the medical director of the UAB Lung Health Center since 2009. An elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation, Mark is the principal investigator for multiple clinical trials and observational studies sponsored by the NIH, Department of Defense, and American Lung Association. He also chairs the Lancet Commission on COPD, an international consortium whose objective is to set the course to eradicate the disease.

In the hospital and clinic, Dr. Dransfield interests include chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and lung cancer. Along with Dr. Surya Bhatt, he has pioneered the use of bronchoscopic lung volume reduction to treat emphysema. He also led the successful CMS Bundled Payments for Care Improvement (BPCI) initiative for COPD from 2015-2019 and served as medical director of Pulmonary Rehabilitation for more than 10 years.

A graduate of the UNC School of Medicine, Dr. Dransfield trained in medicine and in pulmonary and critical care medicine at UAB, where he served as Chief Fellow. He joined the faculty here in 2003, and earned the rank of full professor in 2016.

As director, Dr. Dransfield will lead the division in growing its superlative clinical programs in pulmonary medicine and critical care as well as its programs in education and research. he succeeds Dr. Victor J. Thannickal in this role, who became chair of Tulane’s Department of Medicine in 2021. During that tenure, the division grew to become one of the most prominent lung research enterprises in the country and the leader in medical intensive care in Alabama.

Special thanks to Drs. Ravi Bhatia and Jeanne Marrazzo, who chaired the Search Committee, as well as the members of the committee (Dan Berkowitz, Vera Bittner, Jessy Deshane, Jim Donahue, Teja Kulkarni, Tracy Luckhardt, Rakesh Patel, Greg Payne, Steve Rowe, and Lauryn Schultz) for their invaluable service and final recommendations.

Please join in wishing Dr. Dransfield continued success in this role.