Paul Tan (MD 2002, FRACP Respiratory & Sleep Medicine 2012, General Medicine 2012) is a Respiratory Physician committed to providing high quality respiratory and sleep medicine in Northland. Paul has a special interest in airways disease, lung cancers, interstitial lung disease and sleep disordered breathing.
Paul graduated from the University of Western Ontario, Canada in 2002. He came to New Zealand and completed his post graduate training in both Respiratory & Sleep Medicine and General Medicine at Christchurch Hospital in 2012.
Paul works closely with Catherine Corble, a Senior Clinical Sleep & Respiratory Physiologist to provide lung function testings and sleep studies.
Services provided:
- Medical consultation
- Lung function testing (pre and post bronchodilator spirometry, flow volume loops, lung volumes, diffusion capacities)
- Home based sleep studies (Level 3 & 4)
What is Respiratory Medicine?
Respiratory medicine is the branch of medicine that treats people with diseases affecting the lungs and breathing.
The role of our lungs is to deliver oxygen into our bloodstream and remove carbon dioxide. When you breathe in, air passes through the throat into the windpipe (trachea). The base of the windpipe divides into the right and left tubes (bronchi) which divide again and again each time getting smaller and smaller until the smallest airways called the alveoli are reached. The alveoli act like balloons i.e. when you breathe in they inflate and when you breathe out they relax.
Oxygen moves across the walls of the alveoli and enters the bloodstream and is carried to the rest of the body after passing through the heart. Carbon dioxide is passed from the blood into the alveoli and is breathed out of the lungs.
Common symptoms or signs of lung disease include: shortness of breath, wheezing, long-term cough, coughing up blood, and having chest pains.
