Donald Strominger Professor of Pediatrics

• Cystic Fibrosis Center
• Allergy and Pulmonary Medicine
• Patient Oriented Research

Dr. Strunk received his undergraduate education from Northwestern University and his medical degree from the Northwestern University School of Medicine. Dr. Strunk was an intern in pediatrics at Cincinnati Children's Hospital and was a fellow in Allergy and Immunology at Boston Children's Hospital. He was on the faculty at University of Arizona from 1974-1978 and at the University of Colorado and National Jewish Medical and Research Center from 1978-1987 before joining the faculty at Washington University School of Medicine in 1987 as a Professor of Pediatrics. He is certified by the American Board of Pediatrics and the American Board of Allergy and Immunology. Dr. Strunk was recipient of an Allergic Disease Academic Award from the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases from 1983-1988, was a Director of the Board of Allergy and Immunology from 1988-1995, and was Director of the Division of Allergy and Pulmonary at St. Louis Children's Hospital from 1987 to 1997. He was a member of the Protocol Review Committee for the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Clinical Asthma Research Network from 1994 to 1999. He is a member of the American Thoracic Society and the American Academy of Asthma, Allergy, Immunology. He is a member of a continued review committee for the Human Research Protection Office and a member of the Washington University Human Subject Research Quality Assurance/Quality Improvement Program.

Research

Dr. Strunk's research focuses on outcomes of childhood asthma, including a long-term interest in fatal asthma. Current efforts are focused on the Childhood Asthma Management Program, for which he is Director of the St. Louis Center, Vice-Chairman of the Steering Committee, and member of the Executive Committee, two NIH grants to define mechanisms of delivery of care to asthmatic children with economic disadvantage, and the Pediatric Asthma Clinical Research Network, the Childhood Asthma Research and Education (CARE) Network, for which he is the Director of the St. Louis Center. This network conducts a series of clinical trials in the area of pediatric asthma.

Selected Publications

1. Smith S, Highstein A, Strunk R, Trinkaus K, Jaffe D, Fisher E: Asthma coaching in the pediatric Emergency Department. Acad Emergency Med 2006; 13:835-839..

2. Strunk R, Weiss ST, Yates KP, Tonascia J, Zeiger RS, Szefler SJ: Mild to moderate asthma affects lung growth in children and adolescents. J Allergy Clin Immunol 2006; 118:1040-1047..

3. Boyd JH, Macklin EA, Strunk R, DeBaun MR, The CSSCD investigators: Asthma is Associated with Acute Chest Syndrome and Pain in Children with Sickle Cell Anemia: A Cohort Study from the Cooperative Study of Sickle Cell Disease. Blood 2006; 108:2923-2927.

4. Chen E, Oliver-Welker T, Rodgers D, Strunk R: Developing measures of symptom perception for children with asthma. J Allergy Clin Immunol 2007; 119:248-250..

5. Nelson KA, Lee P, Yan Y, Hodgdon K, Schootman M, Strunk R: Effect of peak expiratory flow rate measurement on exhaled nitric oxide levels in children with asthma. J Allergy Clin Immunol 2007; 119:245-246.

6. Strunk R, The Childhood Asthma Management Program Research Group: Childhood Asthma Management Program: Lessons learned. J Allergy Clin Immunol 2007; 119:36-42..