Yewande Odeyemi, M.B.B.S.

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SUMMARY

The research of Yewande E. Odeyemi, M.B.B.S., focuses on improving the care and outcomes of patients hospitalized with acute pulmonary inflammation, including those with community acquired pneumonia (CAP) and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). The goal of Dr. Odeyemi's research is to individualize care using a precision-medicine approach to:

• Identify distinct subgroups that respond differently to treatment
• Understand how to precisely measure pulmonary inflammation in clinical practice
• Understand how to effectively control harmful inflammation in CAP and ARDS by individualizing the timing, dosing, and duration of corticosteroids and other anti-inflammatory drugs

Focus areas

• Predicting clinical deterioration in hospitalized patients with CAP. Dr Odeyemi and her colleagues are interested in identifying hospitalized patients with CAP at risk of experiencing a clinical deterioration. They use advanced statistical and machine-learning methods with the goal of preventing illness progression through intensive monitoring and treatment.
• Identifying corticosteroid-responsive phenotypes in hospitalized patients with CAP. An additional research focus is developing an individual-treatment rule for corticosteroid use in patients with CAP through advanced statistical and machine-learning methods. The goal of this research is to identify patients in whom the benefits of adjunct corticosteroid treatment would outweigh the potential harm.
• Individualizing corticosteroid therapy in CAP. Dr. Odeyemi's research team designed a novel approach to individualizing corticosteroid therapy in COVID-19 infection using biomarkers to measure inflammation. This unique approach decreased exposure to corticosteroids with improvement in clinical outcomes in a feasibility trial. The team is currently working on strategies to improve this approach.

Significance to patient care

Pneumonia remains the leading infectious cause of hospitalizations and death worldwide despite effective vaccines, antimicrobial therapy and supportive care. Corticosteroid therapy could curb the exaggerated inflammation in pneumonia, but its use has remained undefined. Presently, doctors don't know which patients can benefit from steroids, and when or how much to prescribe. Dr. Odeyemi's research proposes an individualized approach to steroid treatment, seeking to give the right dose of steroids to the right patient at the right time.

Professional highlights

• Robert A. Winn Diversity in Clinical Trials Career Development Award (Winn CDA), Bristol Meyers Squibb Foundation, 2022-2024.