Sritika Thapa, MD

Sritika Thapa, MD, is a pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine specialist who cares for patients in all three of those areas. She has a particular interest in the use of non-invasive ventilators (NIV), to support breathing for patients who are being treated with chronic respiratory failure in outpatient settings.

Dr. Thapa offers a specialized pulmonary clinic for patients with overlapping sleep and obstructive lung-related disease, where the primary focus is on managing chronic respiratory failure with home NIVs, such as bi-level positive airway pressure (BIPAP) machines and home mechanical ventilators (HMV).

She also cares for patients who are being treated at the Yale Sleep Center for obstructive sleep apnea and other sleep-related problems, including insomnia, central sleep apnea, and movement disorder. In addition, she works in the medical intensive care center (ICU), where she has a special interest in mechanical ventilators. She finds it rewarding to transition patients leaving the ICU from mechanical ventilators to using NIV (if needed) to help them avoid readmission to the hospital.

Dr. Thapa grew up in Nepal and became interested in pulmonary problems while working in a hospital that often treated patients who had been bitten by Kraits, a species of snake whose venom can lead to respiratory paralysis. “This led me to think deeply about ventilators, lung physiology, breathing, and the basic principles around those things,” she says. “It was the right choice.”

She works in partnership with her patients to manage their conditions with the goal of not “leaving any stones unturned.” “I want to make sure important problems are not missed and minor ones aren’t ignored,” she says. “I also avoid sugarcoating the reality of a patient’s condition and stay honest about what we know and don’t know, and about the risks and benefits of different treatment options.”

An assistant professor at Yale School of Medicine, Dr. Thapa has research interests in patients who may be treated with noninvasive ventilation for overlapping sleep-related breathing disorders and obstructive lung disease. “I am trying to better understand the health outcomes when noninvasive devices are used by patients with chronic respiratory failure from obstructive lung disease,” she says.