Levent Midyat, MD

Dr. Levent Midyat is a pediatric pulmonologist at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. He joined the faculty at UPMC in May 2023 and is being nominated for an appointment at the rank of Associate Professor in the Clinician-Educator (appointment) Pathway. Dr. Midyat received his medical degree from the Istanbul University Cerrahpasa Medical School in 2000. After serving as a resident and a chief resident in pediatrics (2001-2007) and as a fellow in pediatric allergy and immunology (2007-2010) at Ege University School of Medicine, he was promoted to the rank of Associate Professor in Pediatrics in 2012.

In 2013, he moved to the United States, serving first as a fellow in pediatric pulmonology at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School (2013-2016) and then as a resident in pediatrics at the combined residency program of Boston Children’s Hospital and Boston Medical Center (2016-2018). After completing his clinical training, Dr. Midyat joined the Division of Pediatric Pulmonology faculty of Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Dr. Midyat focuses on caring for patients requiring lung transplantation and children who need advanced respiratory support due to underlying complex medical issues. 

In addition to his clinical and administrative leadership roles, Dr. Midyat is an active clinician in the outpatient and inpatient services of the Division of Pulmonary Medicine of Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. He is the new medical director of the Advanced Lung Diseases and Lung Transplantation Center at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. Dr. Midyat will also establish and direct the new post-ICU clinic at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh in collaboration with his colleagues for Intensive Care Units, Cardiology, Pulmonology, and many other subspecialties. 

Dr. Midyat is particularly interested in chronic rejection, a major impediment to prolonged survival in lung transplantation. He is currently performing transcriptomic analysis of post-lung transplant biopsy samples with digital spatial profiling to determine the potential targets for future immunopathological studies. He also uses conventional statistics and machine learning models to assess the natural history and risk factors of chronic lung allograft dysfunction (CLAD) in pediatric versus adult populations using large datasets in these populations. 

Some of his other ongoing projects are post-transplant donor-derived cell-free DNA measurements, cardiac contribution to exercise tolerance, and gastrointestinal complications after lung transplantation. Dr. Midyat is an active member of several research/consensus committees at the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation (ISHLT), and he serves as an editorial advisory board member and ad-hoc reviewer in top specialty journals, including Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation, Pediatric Pulmonology, and American Thoracic Society Scholar. Dr. Midyat is deeply committed to medical education at the local, national, and international levels. Since moving to the U.S., Dr. Midyat has received multiple educational awards, and he has also written educational documents for patients, families, and trainees, recently including materials on patients with neuromuscular diseases and those on long-term ventilation.