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News — Our Borderplex community has a new pulmonary and critical care medicine specialist who plans to enhance lung disease screening protocols and programs to benefit patients and the future physicians who will care for them.

Sheldon Rao, M.D., is seeing patients at the Texas Tech Physicians of El Paso at Alberta clinic and has also joined the Texas Tech Health El Paso Department of Internal Medicine as an assistant professor.

Only a couple of centers and hospitals in El Paso County focus on critical respiratory care, the life-saving care for patients experiencing respiratory issues that cause trouble breathing. With over 800,000 living in El Paso County, Dr. Rao’s pulmonary and critical care skills will help underserved communities in need of his expertise.

“Pulmonary rehabilitation, when done appropriately, has an immense effect on survival, as well as the quality of life in people with end-stage lung disease,” Dr. Rao said. “I aim to introduce new technology and devices which can help those patients with lung disease.”

Before arriving at Texas Tech Health El Paso, Dr. Rao completed a pulmonary and critical care medicine fellowship at the Allegheny Health Network Medical Education Consortium in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he also completed his internal medicine residency. He received his bachelor’s degree in medicine from St. John’s Medical College in Bangalore, India.

Most of Dr. Rao’s research interests revolve around improving patients’ quality of life, and determining if the care they’re receiving improves the overall health of the community without being wasteful. He has published or co-published numerous journal articles and papers on timely pulmonary and critical care issues, including the challenges health care workers face when caring for COVID-19 patients, hematologic and oncologic emergencies in an intensive care setting, and asthma in pregnant women.

Dr. Rao wants to use his expertise to teach the next generation of health care professionals to meet our Borderplex region’s future needs. He’s created a curriculum about thoracic, or chest, ultrasounds and is working on upgrading lung cancer screening protocols and programs to mentor his students on how to detect and treat it early.

“I’m here to teach students and make patients more aware of the vast amount of therapeutics that await them in the pulmonary world, which has had massive advancements in the past five years,” Dr. Rao said.

To make an appointment with Dr. Rao, or any of our Texas Tech Physicians of El Paso, call 915-215-5200.

About Texas Tech Health El Paso

Texas Tech Health El Paso is the only health sciences center on the U.S.-Mexico border and serves 108 counties in West Texas that have been historically underserved. It’s a designated Title V Hispanic-Serving Institution, preparing the next generation of health care heroes, 48% of whom identify as Hispanic and are often first-generation students.

Established as an independent university in 2013, Texas Tech Health El Paso is a proudly diverse and uniquely innovative destination for education and research.

With a mission of eliminating health care barriers and creating life-changing educational opportunities for Borderplex residents, Texas Tech Health El Paso has graduated over 2,400 doctors, nurses and researchers over the past decade, and will add dentists to its alumni beginning in 2025. For more information, visit ttuhscepimpact.org.

About Texas Tech Physicians of El Paso

Texas Tech Physicians of El Paso is the clinical practice of the Foster School of Medicine. It’s the region’s largest multispecialty medical group practice, with over 250 specialists providing world-class patient care for the entire family at several locations across El Paso, while also providing a hands-on learning space for TTUHSC El Paso resident physicians and students.