The Practice

Pediatric Pulmonology

The clinical life that runs beneath every mission — four decades spent inside the breath of children, from asthma to the rarest and most complicated airway.

Neumólogo Pediatra

A Lifetime in Children's Lungs

Alongside the missions and the textbooks, Dr. Ernesto Quiñones has spent his career as a pediatric pulmonologist — a specialist in the breathing of children. His training and affiliations reach from the Centre d'Asthmologie du Somail in France to Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, in the United States, and home again to Quito.

What follows is the shape of that practice: what he listens for in a consultation, the tools he reaches for, and the conditions he has spent a lifetime learning to read.

In Consultation

What a Visit Includes

A consultation with Dr. Quiñones is unhurried and thorough. Each visit is built around the same careful sequence.

A detailed medical history
Evaluation of current symptoms
A complete physical examination
Measurement of oxygenation
Pulmonary function testing — spirometry
Lung ultrasound
Interpretation of imaging — X-rays and CT scans
Review and adjustment of medication
Detection of environmental triggers
Design of a written action plan
Education and family counselling
New & Advanced Techniques

Diagnostics at the Edge of the Field

Where it helps a child, the practice draws on advanced diagnostic tools.

Exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO)
Impulse oscillometry
Chest ultrasound
Low-dose radiation CT
Bronchoscopy
Use of artificial intelligence
Most Frequent Diagnoses

The Conditions He Reads

Over four decades, certain conditions return again and again.

Bronchial asthma
Recurrent wheezing (bronchial hyper-reactivity)
Recurrent or complicated pneumonia
Bacterial or viral bronchitis
Bronchopulmonary dysplasia
Obstructive sleep disorders
Chronic or unexplained cough
Bronchiolitis
Cystic fibrosis
Congenital airway malformations
Where He Refers & Collaborates

A Network of Care

In Quito, his reference centers are the Hospital Metropolitano de Quito and the Hospital de los Valles in Cumbayá.

For second opinions and the medical missions that have defined his life, he works with Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston — through Operation Airway and Careways — and with Hermann Hospital in Houston, Texas.

Publications of International Impact

What He Has Written

A body of work spanning the first pediatric pulmonology textbook published in Ecuador to peer-reviewed research in international journals.

Book
Bases de Neumología Pediátrica
The first textbook of pediatric pulmonology published in Ecuador.
2014
Operation Airway: The First Sustainable, Multidisciplinary, Pediatric Airway Surgical Mission
Annals of Otology, Rhinology and Laryngology — May 2014.
Paper
Outcome of Pediatric Intensive Care at Six Centers in Mexico, Ecuador and the United States
Critical Care Medicine — Vol. 25, Issue 9.
Paper
Comparison of Methacholine and Adenosine Inhalation Challenge in Patients with Suspected Asthma
Journal of Asthma.
Paper
Critical-Care Ultrasonography Training Mission in Tanzania and Zimbabwe
Original article — Revista Ateneo.
Consultations & Second Opinions

A Doctor You Can Reach

Dr. Quiñones remains a practicing pediatric pulmonologist in Quito. For a consultation, a second opinion, or simply to reach him directly: