Corey Kershaw, M.D.

Meet Dr. Kershaw

Interstitial Lung Disease Specialist

Corey Kershaw, M.D., an interstitial lung disease (ILD) specialist at UT Southwestern Medical Center, says listening to his patients' stories is a key to correctly diagnosing their disease.

By delving into their history, he's best able to identify which among hundreds of potential ILDs they may have.

"Listening carefully and spending time with our patients helps us figure out why this happened to them, if there is a reason," Dr. Kershaw says.

Dr. Kershaw makes sure his patients understand their disease and what is happening in their lungs. His efforts can help clear up any misconceptions patients may have coming in to their visit. Patients may think they have an untreatable ILD like idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, only to discover they have a related but treatable disease.

By better educating his patients, Dr. Kershaw helps them find hope and purpose. "It gives them ownership over the disease that they have," he says.

Dr. Kershaw and his colleagues in UT Southwestern's Interstitial Lung Disease Program also help other doctors by providing second opinions. Because there are so many ILDs, it requires expertise and experience to make the correct diagnosis.

"We can sometimes find something that has eluded other doctors," he says.

UT Southwestern's program offers advantages such as access to exclusive clinical trials and tight integration with related services such as lung transplantation and pulmonary rehabilitation, Dr. Kershaw notes.

Dr. Kershaw is also Medical Director of the Medical Intensive Care Unit and Respiratory Therapy at William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital. In this role, he relishes the opportunity to save the lives of people who wouldn't survive if they weren't in the ICU. In addition, he sees patients with other pulmonary problems, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthma.