Dr Newhouse is a Pulmonologist and Clinical Professor of Medicine, McMaster Faculty of Health Sciences, Hamilton, ON Canada.
He has an MD from Queen’s University, Kingston ON (1959), an MSc in Experimental Medicine from McGill University in Montreal PQ (1964) where he did his residency and a research fellowship in the Cardio-Pulmonary Division with Drs M.McGregor and M.Becklake (1960-64). His main research interest at that time was in lung mechanics related to the mechanisms underlying the increased oxygen cost and work of breathing during marked voluntary hyperventilation causing marked hypocapnea.
In 1972 he was named a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Canada, and in 1975 a Fellowof the American College of Physicians. He became a Fellow of the College of Chest Physicians in 1980.
In 1964 he moved to Hamilton as Founding Director of the Pulmonary Division and Pulmonary Function Laboratory at St Joseph’s Hospital and in 1966 established the Medical Aerosol Research Laboratory there. His group was the first to publish studies on the distribution of ventilation, perfusion, aerosol deposition and clearance in man by Gamma Scintigraphy using radio-labeled aerosols and Xenon 135. This led to the widespread use of simpler to use inhaled aerosols instead of radioactive gases for ventilation/perfusion studies in pulmonary embolism using an aerosol generation and delivery system developed by his group working with a major nuclear medicine device company.
Over the next 25 years, with a number of post doctoral associates and research fellows, studies were carried out on the effect of air pollutants and exercise on mucus clearance from the airways, on pulmonary aerosol deposition and clearance in health and disease and on the effect of various medications on lung function and mucus clearance. His research group (Rossman et al) also undertook studies of normal and abnormal ciliary beat frequency and first described the various abnormal ciliary motions in what came to be called Primary Ciliary Dyskinesia (previously called “Immotile Cilia Syndrome”).
Between 1966 and 1969 he assisted in the establishment of the McMaster Faculty of Health Sciences (Hamilton, ON, Canada) and in 1973 became Founding Director of the Firestone Regional Chest and Allergy Unit at St Joseph’s Hospital in Hamilton that subsequently developed into the present Firestone Institute for Respiratory Health (FIRH).
He practiced clinical pulmonology, taught medical students and residents and supervised research fellows and post doctoral associates until he went to California as Director of Medical Affairs at Inhale (subsequently Nektar) Therapeutic Systems (1998-2004). During that time he was also Visiting Professor at the Stanford Faculty of Medicine in Palo Alto.
With numerous colleagues, residents and research fellows he has published over 150 original studies and numerous review articles, has co-edited books and contributed book chapters in clinical pulmonology and research. He has delivered several hundred invited lectures at academic centers and international conferences in many countries around the world.
His clinical interests have been mainly in asthma, COPD, cystic fibrosis and in simplifying and improving the MDI-based aerosol therapy of asthma and COPD by means of aerosol holding chambers. His pharmaceutical aerosol-related research resulted in the invention and development (with the initial assistance of Boeringer-Ingelheim and subsequently TMI of London, ON) of the AeroChamber© a pocketable device that improves MDI-generated aerosol therapy adherence, reduces adverse upper respiratory tract and systemic effects of inhaled corticosteroids and, in many centers around the world, has largely replaced wet nebulization for treating asthma and COPD in infants and toddlers, adults ,the aged, and patients on ventilators (even horses, cats and dogs with asthma) in over 100 countries. In Cystic Fibrosis (CF) he studied the benefit of various modalities of physical therapy and exercise on mucociliary and cough clearance of secretions and the benefit of inhaled vs IV antibiotic therapy with aminoglycosides for controlling Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection and improving longevity and quality of life in this disease.
He has also had a major interest in airway ciliary structure and function and in mucociliary transport in health and disease. His group also studied the effect of various drugs, air pollutants, exercise and chest physiotherapy on mucociliary transport and has studied mucus clearance in CF using various therapeutic modalities.
Prof. Newhouse is on the editorial board and a reviewer for several major medical and pulmonary journals including Journal of Aerosol medicine, Chest, AJRCCM, NEJM, and several other national and international journals..
He was President of the International Society for Aerosols in Medicine from 1965-7 and was President of the ISAM international conference in 1995..
He holds several patents in the area of aerosol delivery devices and is now mainly involved in research into new and improved concepts in pulmonary and systemic aerosol therapy and development of advanced delivery systems, especially with respect to aerosol delivery to infants and young children (with Prof. Israel Amirav at technion University, Israel).
He is currently consultant to a start-up Respiratory Co., InspiRx Pharmaceuticals and is assisting in the development of innovative aerosol delivery systems particularly for pediatrics.
He has a variety of non medical/scientific interests including creation of bronze and welded sculpture, acrylic and oil painting and sailing. He happily still has a 102 year old mother who is still going strong, 5 terrific adult children raised mainly by his wife, Carol, and 14 amazing grandchildren, the oldest of which is about to graduate in biomedical engineering.
