Dr. Henderson is Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Pulmonary Diseases and Critical Care Medicine and is Program Director of the Pulmonary Diseases and Critical Care Medicine Fellowship Program.
What is your clinical expertise?
I am a pulmonologist and intensivist (pulmonary and critical care).
What is your current role in the Department of Medicine?
I am an Associate Professor and I have several roles:
- Clinician—I work mostly in the medicine intensive care unit for inpatient work, I have my own pulmonary clinic, precept fellows
- Administrative—I am the program director for our fellowship program (pulmonary and critical care, a combined program)
- Teaching—I am the block director for the respiratory block in the Foundation Phase of the TEC curriculum (formerly 1st and 2nd year medical school) as well as the medical sciences co-director of the Foundation phase. I am also involved in teaching in several other ways, but these are my “big” titles/roles
- Research—I also am involved with COPD epidemiology studies looking at COPD in Hispanics as well as an ANCA-vasculitis project and a small medical education project.
What current project or initiative at UNC are you involved in that you are excited about?
I am involved with many exciting things, but I have a two key changes of late:
1) I have a relatively new collaboration with the renal vasculitis clinic, which is our start towards a true multidisciplinary clinic for these patients that have an illness involving multiple organs simultaneously. By putting us (pulmonary and nephrology) together on clinic days, we can improve the care we give to these patients as we make joint decisions in their clinical care, as well as discuss research opportunities from different aspects/viewpoints. In time we could potentially expand it more.
2) I have been involved with the development of the new TEC curriculum (Translational Eduation for Carolina) for medical students, which is in its second year, having made significant changes in how we are teaching medical students.
It’s exciting to be part of changes and improvement in the medical system, both from clinical and educational standpoints. Every day I am reminded of how UNC faculty and staff work together as a team for a great common goal.
What is your hometown?
San Angelo, Texas