Recently recognized by Crain’s New York Business as a 2023 Notable Health Care Leader for his exceptional work and dedication to health care, Neil W. Schluger, M.D., is an internationally renowned pulmonologist. Dr. Schluger's leadership on the NYMC campus and at Westchester Medical Center, as the director of medicine, began in 2020. He distinguished himself as a clinician, researcher, and educator, leading a department of more than 425 faculty members and teaching more than 800 medical students and residents. In 2021, Dr. Schluger took on the additional role of associate dean for clinical and translational research for the SOM. He was named dean of the SOM in 2023.
Previously, Dr. Schluger served as chief of the division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine at Columbia University Irving Medical Center; professor of medicine, epidemiology and environmental health sciences; director of the Population and Global Health Track for the Scholars Projects Program; and co-director of the Programs in Education and Global and Population Health for the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University.
Dr. Schluger’s influence expands well beyond the U.S., as he is a founder of the East Africa Training Initiative (EATI) in Pulmonary Medicine. The two-year fellowship training program in pulmonary and critical care medicine, which marked its tenth anniversary in 2023, is the first training program of its kind in Ethiopia and the broader East African region. Before the launch of EATI, Ethiopia had only one pulmonologist for its 110 million people. Thus far, the initiative has graduated 18 specialists, including two pediatric pulmonologists and two physicians from Rwanda and Tanzania, who have assumed leadership roles at hospitals across East Africa.
Dr. Schluger has been an author or editor of several editions of the Tobacco Atlas, the definitive work describing the extent and consequences of the global epidemic of tobacco use, published by Vital Strategies and the American Cancer Society.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Schluger became a voice in the media on re-infection, long-term symptoms, and the use of hydroxychloroquine for treating COVID-19. He was the senior author of the seminal article, “Observational Study of Hydroxychloroquine in Hospitalized Patients with COVID-19,” published in The New England Journal of Medicine, May 7, 2020. Dr. Schluger used data from an observational trial he led where 1,400 COVID-19 patients were given hydroxychloroquine and showed that there was no evidence that the drug had any benefit for the patients’ conditions.
Dr. Schluger is the author of more than 200 articles, chapters, and books. His work has been published in The New England Journal of Medicine, The Journal of the American Medical Association, The Lancet, and The Lancet Respiratory Medicine, among other leading journals. Dr. Schluger is an associate editor of The American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. He is a past chair of the American Lung Association of New York and a past chief scientific officer of the World Lung Foundation.
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Education
- Fellowship, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, The New York Hospital/Cornell Medical Center
- Residency, Internal Medicine, St. Luke's Hospital
- M.D., University of Pennsylvania
- B.A., Harvard College
Areas of Expertise
- Pulmonology
- Lung Disease
- Tobacco Use
- Tuberculosis
- Global Health
- Medical Education
- General Respiratory Health
Research
Dr. Schluger’s research career has focused on several aspects of tuberculosis, including clinical trials, epidemiology, novel diagnostics, and host immune responses. He has also focused on chronic lung disease in low-resource settings.
Publications
- Yoo KJ, Schluger NW. "NHIS vs. Big Tobacco: South Korea's pursuit of cost recovery through litigation." The Lancet regional health. Western Pacific, 61(), (2025) 101655. doi: 10.1016/j.lanwpc.2025.101655
- Blakley M, Schluger NW. "A World Without WHO." JAMA, 334(1), (2025) 90-91. doi: 10.1001/jama.2025.4295
- Gavras N, Schluger NW. "QT Prolongation Associated with Administration of Bedaquiline, a Novel Anti-Tuberculosis Drug." Cardiology in review, (), (2024) . doi: 10.1097/CRD.0000000000000790
- Worku A, Haisch D, Parekh M, et. al. "Epidemiology and Outcomes of Critical Illness and Novel Predictors of Mortality in an Ethiopian Medical Intensive Care Unit." Journal of intensive care medicine, 39(8), (2024) 778-784. doi: 10.1177/08850666241233481
- Diel R, Schluger NW. "Long-term outcome of co-infection of COVID-19 and tuberculosis: the "cursed duet"." The European respiratory journal, 62(5), (2023) . pii: 2301881. doi: 10.1183/13993003.01881-2023
- Salerno MM, Burzynski J, Mangan JM, et. al. "Adverse events among persons with TB using in-person vs. electronic directly observed therapy." The international journal of tuberculosis and lung disease : the official journal of the International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, 27(11), (2023) 833-840. doi: 10.5588/ijtld.22.0594
- Huluka DK, Ashagrie AW, Gebremariam TH, et. al. "Strategic response to COVID-19 in Ethiopia." Public health action, 12(4), (2022) 191-194. doi: 10.5588/pha.22.0007
Professional Service
Dr. Schluger serves as a member of the Board of Trustees at Vital Strategies, a global not-for-profit organization devoted to public health issues.
