Robert Strunk, MD
Pediatric Pulmonologist
St. Louis Children’s Hospital
- Founder and director of the Community Asthma Program, an effort to help primary care physicians in their local communities deliver care to asthmatic patients more effectively and efficiently, as well as improve the quality of life for children with asthma and their families.
- An asthmatic and an avid runner, he has become a nationwide advocate for better standards of care for asthmatics. He demonstrates that controlled asthma should not preclude children from participating in sports or other physical activities
- Recently led the MARS study, (Montelukast or Azithromycin for Reduction of Inhaled Corticosteroids in Childhood Asthma), a 30-week trial that tested children with asthma and evaluated whether two medications could reduce the amount of inhaled steroids needed to control asthma. The MARS study is part of a national study sponsored by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.
- Director of the division of allergy and pulmonary medicine at St. Louis Children’s Hospital and an asthma specialist and professor of pediatrics at Washington University School of Medicine.
Notable Quotes from Dr. Strunk
Dr. Strunk on the significance of the MARS study:
“This study is important because long-term inhaled steroid use may have side effects, such as reduced growth.”
“Another purpose of MARS is to determine what individual characteristics—such as age, gender, family history of asthma and allergies, the degree of allergy in the participant, and genetics—may be linked with either a good or poor response to each of the medications.”
Dr. Strunk on the importance of controlling asthma:
“What we want to do is control the asthma so that it does not control the child. While allergic reactions are not life threatening, children are more likely than adults to have asthma, which can put their lives at risk.”