Intensive Care Unit

The Intensive Care Unit (ICU) is a 16-bed state-of-the-art medical-surgical unit. Along with a teaching attending, fellows conduct daily radiology and work rounds with a multidisciplinary team that includes residents, medical students, a pharmacist, dietitian, nurses and respiratory therapists. Daily rounds with physical rehabilitation staff and nurse managers promote early mobilization and awake mechanical ventilation. In addition to overseeing the care of all medical patients, fellows work closely with the surgical team on selected cases.

Pulmonary Consultation Service

The Consultation Service provides pulmonary consultations to all units of the hospital including Medicine, Surgery, Post-operative Care, Rehabilitation, Obstetrics and Emergency Medicine.  Fellows are supervised by the nine attending pulmonologists. Case review and didactic sessions are conducted by a dedicated teaching attending, who also interprets pulmonary function tests with the fellow. Medical students and residents on elective join the fellow on the service and teaching rounds.

Yale-New Haven Consultation Service

Second-year fellows rotate on the Pulmonary Consultation Service at Yale-New Haven Hospital. This rotation provides exposure to transplantation-related pulmonary disorders and also introduces the fellow to the systems of care at Yale-New Haven Hospital. During this rotation, the fellows may have the opportunity to interact with the specialty clinics in interstitial lung disease, pulmonary hypertension and adult cystic fibrosis.

Critical Care Ultrasound and Cardiac Echo

This rotation is divided into two two-week blocks, one at the beginning of the first year and the other toward the end. The fellows spend half of each day at Norwalk Hospital learning the basics of performance of echocardiography in the Cardiology Section. The remainder of the time is devoted to self-study utilizing videos and texts and practical applications with echo simulation using SonoSim®.  The fellow reviews echocardiograms performed at Norwalk Hospital with the attending cardiologist.  The second rotation provides the fellows the opportunity to refine their echo technique after employing it clinically during the intervening rotations. Dr. Ian Weir oversees the fellows’ performance during this rotation.

Sleep Medicine

In their second year, fellows spend two months in Sleep Medicine at Norwalk Hospital’s accredited Sleep Disorders Center. This busy service housed in new facilities just offsite performs more than 1,000 sleep consultations, 1,500 polysomnograms, and 100 MSLT and MWTs per year. The fellows work with three board-certified attendings, including a pediatric sleep specialist and insomnia expert on all sleep disorders. Fellows attend the lectures of the Sleep Fellowship. This experience provides the Pulmonary fellows with the opportunity to decide whether to pursue further training in Sleep Medicine.

Pulmonary Function Laboratory

Fellows in their first year spend a two-week block learning how to conduct and interpret pulmonary function tests, challenge testing, and cardio-pulmonary exercise testing under the direction of Brian Mitchell, RPFT, Director of the PFT Laboratory.

Pulmonary Rehabilitation

Pulmonary Rehabilitation at Norwalk Hospital is a nationally recognized service directed by Dr. Amy Ahasic. Fellows spend two weeks working in this ambulatory service to learn how to provide this essential and uplifting part of comprehensive pulmonary care. Fellows also have the opportunity to pursue research related to pulmonary rehabilitation.  

Long Term Acute Care (LTAC) rotation

Norwalk Hospital’s commitment to education is evidenced by its highly active conference schedule that combines workshops, faculty and invited speakers, and fellow-led activities. Weekly conferences include:
Connecticut State Chest Conference hosted at Yale New Haven Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Department. This one-hour weekly conference features exceptional case presentations and lectures from internationally renowned pulmonary-critical care physicians. During the summer months, State Chest is devoted to lectures on common pulmonary and critical care disorders.

Norwalk Pulmonary Section Conference. This weekly series entails a rotating format of invited expert speakers, topical lectures from Section members and fellows as well as Morbidity and Mortality, Pathology, and Quality and Safety lectures.

Ambulatory Case Conference. Dr. Amy Ahasic, Section Chief, conducts this broad-ranging weekly session, in which ambulatory cases and topics are examined in depth.

Pulmonary Physiology Lecture Series. Each year, the fellows and faculty participate in a 12-lecture course that provides grounding in respiratory physiology.

Research Conference. This conference focuses on the research of the Pulmonary and Sleep fellows. Fellows also participate in Norwalk Hospital’s bi-weekly multidisciplinary Thoracic Tumor Board. Additional conferences include journal club, POCUS conference, Interstitial Lung Disease case conference, weekly Sleep Medicine conferences and Internal Medicine Grand Rounds.

Research
By integrating our comprehensive clinical training experience with the opportunity to engage in clinically-oriented research, our fellowship program prepares fellows to combine excellent patient care with investigational endeavors. All fellows participate in clinically related research endeavors in a variety of areas including critical care medicine, pulmonary medicine, outcomes research, sleep medicine and quality improvement. The research training at Norwalk has successfully prepared fellows for university-based positions as well as hospital leadership posts. Fellows have access to statisticians and receive close mentoring by faculty.

Examples of previous projects pertain to the study of 30 day readmission of COPD, management of environmental hypothermia, evaluation of pulmonary embolism, and implementation of ARDS protocol. The Section also participates in NIH-sponsored trials such as the PROCESS study, which evaluated the outcome of sepsis treatment with Early Goal Directed Therapy versus routine care and the Procalcitonin Antibiotic Consensus Trial. High-level statistical support and professional coordinators are available to assist the fellows in their research.

Amy Ahasic, MD, MPH, ATSF, FCCP

• Section Chief, Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine, Norwalk Hospital, Nuvance Health
• Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine
• Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine, University of Vermont Larner School of Medicine
• Fellowship: Harvard Combined Program (MGH/BWH/BIDMC), Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine
• Fellowship: Harvard School of Public Health, Occupational & Environmental Medicine
• Residency: Yale-New Haven Hospital, Yale University School of Medicine, Internal Medicine
• Medical School: Yale University School of Medicine

Professional Interests:  Occupational lung disease, unexplained dyspnea, research and methodology. Director of Pulmonary Function Testing lab, Director of CPET (Cardiopulmonary Exercise Testing), Medical Director of Respiratory Care, Medical Director of Pulmonary Rehabilitation.

Ian D. Weir, DO

Program Director, Norwalk Hospital Pulmonary Fellowship affiliated with Yale School of Medicine

• Director, Sleep Medicine Fellowship
• Fellowship: Critical Care, Yale-New Haven Hospital, Yale University School of Medicine; Pulmonary, Norwalk Hospital affiliated with Yale University School of Medicine
• Residency: Sinai Hospital, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
• Medical School: Nova Southeastern University, College of Osteopathic Medicine

Professional Interests: Dr. Weir serves as Program Director of the Pulmonary and Sleep Medicine Fellowship.  His primary research interest is in medical education.   He co-directs the CT state-wide POCUS boot camp for Pulmonary and critical care fellows held at UCONN.  He served as Chair of the AASM Sleep Fellowship Program Directors steering committee, current member of the AASM Innovative Fellowship Model Committee, and member of the ATS pulmonary and critical care medicine match committee.  He also serves as faculty for the ATS Resident boot camp at ATS and directed of the AASM sleep boot camp program committee.

 

Christopher Manfredi, DO

• Medical Director, Norwalk Hospital of the Sleep Disorders Center
• Chief, Subsection of Sleep Medicine
• Fellowship: Critical Care, Yale-New Haven Hospital, Yale University School of Medicine; Pulmonary, Norwalk Hospital affiliated with Yale University School of Medicine
• Residency: Norwalk Hospital affiliated with Yale University School of Medicine
• Medical School: University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine

Professional Interests: Dr. Manfredi serves as a teaching attending in Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine. He has a longstanding interest in methodologies to detect sleep abnormalities and the administration of medical sleep services in the face of evolving diagnostic methodologies.

Ming-Ming Lee, MD

• Fellowship: Boston Medical Center, Boston University School of Medicine
• Residency
• Residency: Rhode Island Hospital, The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University
• Medical School: Albert Einstein College of Medicine

Dr. Lee is the Associate Program Director for the Pulmonary Fellowship and serves as teaching faculty in the Section of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at Norwalk Hospital. 

Hira Bakhtiar, MD

• Associate Program Director, Norwalk Hospital Sleep Medicine Fellowship
• Associate Director, Critical Care Services, Norwalk Hospital, Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine Physician
• Residency: 2017, Internal Medicine, University of Texas Health Science Center, TX
• Fellowship: 2019, Pulmonary Disease, Norwalk Hospital, Yale University School of Medicine, CT
• Fellowship: 2020, Critical Care Medicine, Yale New Haven Health, Yale University School of Medicine, CT
• Fellowship: 2021, Sleep Medicine, Norwalk Hospital, CT

Dr. Bakhtiar is a board‑certified pulmonologist, critical care physician, and sleep medicine specialist whose clinical and academic work spans the full breadth of pulmonary, sleep, and critical care medicine. She manages a wide range of pulmonary disorders—including pulmonary embolism, COPD, asthma, and lung cancer, and provides comprehensive evaluation and treatment of sleep disorders such as insomnia, obstructive sleep apnea, hypersomnias, parasomnias, and movement disorders.

As associate director of the Intensive Care Unit, Dr. Bakhtiar cares for patients with complex, high‑acuity critical illness and leads multiple ICU‑focused quality improvement initiatives. Her efforts emphasize strengthening interdisciplinary communication, ABCDEF bundle implementation, improving recognition and management of skin failure, and promoting evidence‑based practices to enhance patient outcomes and safety.

She contributes to multidisciplinary thoracic oncology care and actively participates in the institution’s lung cancer tumor board, supporting coordinated diagnostic and therapeutic decision‑making.

Dr. Bakhtiar’s academic interests include graduate medical education, curriculum design, physiology, board review, and procedural training—particularly in ultrasound‑guided central venous catheter placement, chest tube placement, and bedside applications of point-of-care ultrasonography.

Dr. Bakhtiar attributes her professional development to the rigorous clinical training and mentorship she received during her Norwalk Hospital fellowship, which provided extensive exposure to complex patient care, research, teaching, and leadership development.

Outside of her clinical and academic roles, Dr. Bakhtiar values time spent with her husband and son.

 

Karen Halasan, MD

• Fellowship: Augusta University Medical College of Georgia, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine
• Residency: University of Connecticut Health Center, Internal Medicine
• Medical School: University of Santo Tomas

Professional Interests: Dr. Karen Halasan is a board-certified pulmonologist and intensivist. She is passionate about her work, advocates for her patients and loves to teach and educate students and patients. She feels that patients who are educated will be more successful in managing their diseases. She is originally from the Philippines and speaks Tagalog and Cebuano fluently. She comes down from the Greater Hartford area, where she has been practicing for the past 10 years.

Akhil Khosla, MD

• Fellowship: Yale New Haven Health, Critical Care Medicine
• Fellowship: Norwalk Hospital, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, 2018
• Residency: Norwalk Hospital, Internal Medicine
• Medical School: St Georges University School of Medicine

Professional Interests: Akhil Khosla, MD is a pulmonary and critical care physician who cares for patients with respiratory disease, critical illness, and emergencies such as cardiac arrest and pulmonary embolism. He is committed to compassionate, evidence-based care and to ensuring patients and families feel supported, informed, and involved in decision-making.

Dr. Khosla is the Director of the Intensive Care Unit at Norwalk Hospital, where he leads ICU integration, clinical operations, and quality improvement efforts across Nuvance Health. Prior to joining Norwalk, he practiced at Yale New Haven Hospital, where he directed the Cardiac Arrest and Rapid Response Program and led the Pulmonary Embolism Response Team (PERT).

In addition to his critical care work, Dr. Khosla provides outpatient pulmonary care with a focus on post-pulmonary embolism recovery and pulmonary hypertension. He collaborates with multidisciplinary teams to ensure timely diagnosis, individualized treatment plans, and access to advanced therapies when appropriate.

Dr. Khosla values clear communication and patient partnership and is dedicated to thoughtful, patient-centered care.

 

For more information about the Norwalk Hospital’s Pulmonary Fellowship please contact:

Santasia Kerr Program Manager Pulmonary Fellowship

Santasia.Kerr@nuvancehealth.org

(203) 852-2670

How to Apply: We only accept applications through ERAS (Electronic Residency Application System). Learn more about ERAS.