Clinical Expertise
A clinical practice and academic focus at the intersection of lung physiology, exposure, and disease.
Evaluation and management of lung disease arising from workplace and environmental exposures — including asbestos-related disease, pneumoconiosis, occupational asthma, and exposure-related airway disease.
Exposure history assessment, causation analysis, and longitudinal surveillance of exposed workers.
Diagnosis and management of obstructive airway disease across its spectrum — from mild asthma to advanced COPD — including assessment of disability and impairment.
Distinguishing work-related from work-exacerbated airway disease.
Interpretation of spirometry, lung volumes, diffusion capacity, and bronchoprovocation according to current ATS/ERS standards, with particular attention to test quality and longitudinal decline.
At the Philadelphia VA, Dr. Gardner developed a mobile pulmonary function testing program to expand access to respiratory diagnostics and specialty referral pathways.
Evaluation of fibrotic and inflammatory interstitial lung disease, including idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and occupational ILD.
Longtime member of a VA/academic multidisciplinary ILD team, integrating imaging, physiology, and pathology in diagnostic and management review (2021–2025).
Board-certified in internal medicine with extensive attending experience in pulmonary, critical care, and hospital medicine — including critical illness, sepsis, pneumonia, pulmonary embolism, and anemia/hemorrhage.
COVID-19 expertise spanning the clinical, research, and operational: pulmonary consultant to the VA National Long-COVID Pilot, site co-investigator on COVID-19 therapeutic trials, and member of the Philadelphia VA's 2020 COVID-19 Clinical Response Workgroup.