Dr Joana Alçada Costa is a consultant in respiratory medicine and intensive care medicine, with particular expertise in acute and chronic respiratory failure as well as sleep medicine.
She has specialist expertise in:
- breathlessness and cough
- respiratory infections
- sleep disorders – sleep apnoea, obesity hypoventilation, insomnia and restless legs syndrome
- asthma
- bronchitis/COPD
- smoking related lung disease
- ventilation and weaning from ventilation
- ECMO
- pre-operative respiratory optimisation/assessment
- post-intensive care disorders
She also performs the following procedures and treatments:
- sleep studies
- lung function
- CPAP and NIV
- acute and chronic ventilation
Locations
Our specialist provides care at these locations:
Biography
Dr Joana Alçada Costa completed her specialist postgraduate training in respiratory, general and intensive care medicine at King’s College Hospital, St Thomas Hospital, Royal Brompton Hospital, St Mary’s Hospital, Charing Cross Hospital and University College London Hospitals.
In 2014, she was awarded a research fellowship in lung repair and regeneration in the National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London and went on to complete a PhD on ‘The Role Of Retinoic Acid In The Repair Of The Human Alveolus’. Alongside her clinical commitments, she maintains a strong interest in research within the field of lung injury and repair. She holds an Honorary Clinical Senior Lecturer post at Imperial College London, where she supervises Bsc students and collaborates in the delivery of national and international clinical trials.
Research
Dr Alçada is active in clinical education and research. She has led clinical research projects looking to improve further understanding and outcomes for patients with respiratory and critical illness.
Her focus of scientific research is on lung injury and repair pathways in human models using human precision lung cut slice culture. With this technique, she has explored how specific pathways important in embryonic development, such as retinoic acid metabolism (RA), have the potential induce regeneration of the human lung. This could lead to the development of disease-modifying therapies that can repair and restore lung function in diseases such as emphysema, pulmonary fibrosis and ARDS.She has published various articles and presented and national and international conferences.
She contributes broadly to medical education. Besides supervising undergraduate students during their Bsc year, she regularly teaches on clinical postgraduate courses.
