UK HealthCare and the UK College of Medicine are proud to announce Soma Jyothula, M.D., has joined our team as the medical director of lung transplantation, specializing in advanced and chronic lung disease. He also serves as associate chief for the division of pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine.
“Essentially, we are treating people with very bad lung diseases like emphysema and COPD, or diseases such as pulmonary fibrosis, interstitial lung disease or pulmonary hypertension,” Jyothula said. “This is a very unique set of patients with a higher burden of disease. They’re more likely to be admitted to the hospital and more likely to have a very poor quality of life.”
Kentucky’s patient population faces significant challenges for improved lung health due to several contributing factors, including high tobacco usage, poor dietary habits and a substantial coal mining community in the eastern portion of the state. A 2025 report from the American Lung Association states that Kentucky has the highest rate of new lung cancer cases across the United States.
This patient population provides a unique opportunity for Jyothula and the rest of his team to improve community well-being through lung disease treatment and research.
“I worked for two decades in South Texas where I only saw two cases of pneumoconiosis. I’ve been in the clinic for six weeks here and have seen probably 30 patients with the disease. There is a specialized cohort of patients here with very bad lung diseases, some of them quite rare,” he said.
Jyothula’s work at UK will continue his decades of compassionate, personalized care in the field of pulmonary medicine. His clinic offers a variety of pulmonary procedures, such as:
- Advanced bronchoscopic procedures, including lung biopsies
- Endobronchial valve placement for severe emphysema
- Management of autoimmune and rheumatic lung diseases
- Medical management with antifibrotic therapies
- Pre- and post-operative lung transplant care
- Targeted therapies for pulmonary hypertension
Jyothula’s pulmonology team will be with patients through every step of their journey. The team consists of two additional transplant pulmonologists and more than a dozen faculty within the division of pulmonary care. “Our intention is to offer comprehensive medical management for patients with lung diseases in a multidisciplinary fashion,” Jyothula said. “We act as a primary clinic for patients with bad lung disease, both before and after lung transplantation.”
We are excited to welcome Jyothula, and we look forward to seeing the positive impact that he and his team will have on the state of Kentucky.