Best Respiratory Medicine Specialists in Indore, India

Respiratory medicine has undergone a significant transformation over the past two decades. Conditions that once required surgical access to the airway like biopsies of central airways, drainage of complex pleural effusions or stenting of malignant bronchial strictures are now managed bronchoscopically by pulmonologists with interventional training. Sleep-disordered breathing, long under-recognised in the Indian context, is increasingly understood as a trigger of cardiovascular risk, metabolic dysfunction and cognitive impairment that needs investigation and treatment. Allergy as a clinical discipline including the systematic workup of sensitisation patterns, allergen immunotherapy, and the management of allergic airway disease has its own diagnostic and therapeutic framework distinct from empirical anti-allergic prescribing.

Medanta Indore's Department of Respiratory and Sleep Medicine provides specialist pulmonological care across these domains. Dr. Tanay Joshi, Consultant, holds an MD in Respiratory Medicine and an additional Fellowship in Respiratory and Sleep Medicine. His clinical scope covers interventional pulmonology, sleep medicine, intensive respiratory care, and allergy - four areas that together constitute a modern, broadly trained respiratory medicine practice.

The department operates in clinical collaboration with the critical care team at Medanta Indore - respiratory medicine and intensive care share a physiological boundary in patients requiring ventilatory support, and the respiratory physician's role in the ICU, in weaning patients from ventilation and in managing complex post-intubation airway conditions is an integral part of this collaboration.

Clinical Services - Respiratory and Sleep Medicine at Medanta Indore

Interventional Pulmonology

Interventional pulmonology uses bronchoscopic and pleural techniques to diagnose and treat conditions of the airway and pleural space. Flexible bronchoscopy allows direct visualisation of the central airways, bronchoalveolar lavage for microbiological and cytological sampling, and transbronchial biopsy for diffuse lung parenchymal disease. Endobronchial ultrasound (EBUS) allows bronchoscopic sampling of mediastinal and hilar lymph nodes without mediastinoscopy, providing nodal staging for lung cancer and tissue diagnosis in sarcoidosis and lymphoma. Rigid bronchoscopy is used for the management of central airway obstruction including tumour debulking, foreign body extraction, and endobronchial stent placement for malignant or benign strictures. Pleural procedures including diagnostic and therapeutic thoracentesis, pleural biopsy, and tunnelled pleural catheter insertion for recurrent malignant effusions are within the interventional pulmonology scope.

Sleep Medicine and Sleep Disordered Breathing

Obstructive sleep apnoea characterised by recurrent upper airway collapse during sleep causing apnoeic episodes, oxygen desaturation and arousal affects a substantial proportion of the adult population, with significant underdiagnosis across India. Its consequences extend well beyond snoring and daytime sleepiness: untreated OSA is associated with increased risk of hypertension, atrial fibrillation, coronary artery disease, stroke, metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes. Formal diagnosis requires polysomnography - an overnight sleep study measuring airflow, respiratory effort, oxygen saturation, EEG, EMG, and cardiac rhythm simultaneously. Treatment with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) is the established first-line intervention for moderate to severe OSA, with mandibular advancement devices and surgical options for selected patients. Central sleep apnoea, insomnia, narcolepsy and restless leg syndrome are also within the sleep medicine clinical scope.

Respiratory Intensive Care

Patients with acute respiratory failure ranging from pneumonia, acute exacerbations of COPD, ARDS or pulmonary oedema require intensive management of ventilation and gas exchange alongside treatment of the underlying cause. Non-invasive ventilation like BiPAP and CPAP allows respiratory support without endotracheal intubation in selected presentations, avoiding the complications of invasive mechanical ventilation. When invasive ventilation is required, lung-protective ventilatory strategies - low tidal volumes, appropriate PEEP and prone positioning in ARDS - have a documented impact on outcomes. The respiratory physician's role in the ICU extends beyond ventilator management to decisions about weaning, tracheostomy and the management of ventilator-associated complications.

Allergy and Allergic Airway Disease

Allergic rhinitis and asthma frequently coexist as manifestations of the same underlying atopic process across the upper and lower airways. Systematic allergy assessment including skin prick testing, specific IgE measurement and bronchial provocation testing (where indicated) defines the sensitisation profile and guides targeted management. Allergen immunotherapy administered as subcutaneous injections or sublingual drops over a multi-year course modifies the underlying immune response rather than suppressing symptoms, and is the only treatment approach capable of altering the natural history of allergic disease. Eosinophilic asthma, severe allergic asthma, and conditions requiring biological therapy - anti-IgE, anti-IL5, or anti-IL4/13 monoclonal antibodies - represent the more complex end of the allergic respiratory practice.

Dr. Tanay Joshi - Consultant, Respiratory and Sleep Medicine

Dr. Tanay Joshi holds an MD in Respiratory Medicine and a Fellowship in Respiratory and Sleep Medicine alongside his MBBS. The fellowship, undertaken after MD qualification, represents additional structured training in the subspecialty areas of sleep medicine and interventional and intensive respiratory care. His clinical scope at Medanta Indore covers the full range of respiratory conditions including obstructive, restrictive, and infective lung diseases; pleural conditions; airway pathology requiring bronchoscopic evaluation; sleep-disordered breathing requiring formal polysomnographic assessment and treatment; respiratory critical care and the allergy and asthma practice that constitutes a significant part of outpatient respiratory medicine. He is the single specialist in respiratory and sleep medicine at Medanta Indore, providing continuity of care across the inpatient, outpatient, and procedural dimensions of the specialty.

FAQs

1. When does a persistent cough require a pulmonologist's assessment rather than a GP visit?

   A cough lasting more than eight weeks (chronic cough) has a differential diagnosis that goes beyond post-nasal drip and acid reflux, and needs systematic investigation. Warning features that necessitate prompt referral regardless of duration include haemoptysis, unexplained weight loss, night sweats, a cough in a smoker over forty or a cough in someone with known or suspected malignancy. A chronic productive cough should not be attributed to infection and treated empirically without imaging.

2. What is EBUS and how does it differ from a standard bronchoscopy?

   Standard flexible bronchoscopy visualises the central airways including trachea, main bronchi, and segmental bronchi and allows mucosal biopsies and bronchoalveolar lavage from accessible sites. It cannot visualise the mediastinum or sample lymph nodes adjacent to but outside the airway lumen. Endobronchial ultrasound (EBUS) adds an ultrasound transducer to the bronchoscope, allowing real-time imaging of structures immediately adjacent to the airway wall including mediastinal and hilar lymph nodes. Under ultrasound guidance, a needle is passed through the airway wall into the target node (EBUS-TBNA) providing tissue from sites that would otherwise require mediastinoscopy under general anaesthesia. It is the investigation of choice for the mediastinal staging of lung cancer and for tissue diagnosis in mediastinal lymphadenopathy from sarcoidosis, lymphoma, and metastatic disease.

3. My partner says I stop breathing during sleep. Should I have a sleep study?

   Witnessed apnoeic episodes - breathing pauses during sleep observed by a bed partner are a highly specific symptom of obstructive sleep apnoea and need formal evaluation. A sleep study including polysomnography, conducted overnight in a sleep laboratory, or a validated home sleep testing device for appropriate patients is required to confirm the diagnosis and quantify severity through the apnoea-hypopnoea index. A respiratory medicine consultation at Medanta Indore is the appropriate starting point for assessment and sleep study arrangement.