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Pulmonary Disease/Critical Care Medicine
Dr. Mark E. Wylam is a board-certified UCI Health pulmonologist and critical care physician who specializes in pulmonology and critical care medicine.
He earned his medical degree from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. He completed a combined residency in internal medicine and pediatrics at the University of Illinois in Chicago, followed by fellowships in adult pulmonary and critical care medicine and pediatric pulmonology at the University Chicago. He was a consultant at the University of Chicago and later the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., for 27 years.
Wylam served as an assistant professor at the University of Chicago until 1998, where he directed the bronchoscopy program. Following advanced training at Washington University and the University of Pittsburgh, he established the lung transplant program at the University of Chicago. In 1998, he joined the Mayo Clinic’s Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine Division in Rochester, MN, to pursue additional research opportunities. As director of Mayo Clinic’s critical care program, he led the establishment of the 24/7 intensivist model, setting the industry standard. Under his leadership, practice bundles, best practice guidelines, daily checklists, a standardized case presentation format and a rapid resuscitation team were implemented. A key clinician and innovator in the Heart-Lung Transplant Program, he has also held leadership roles as past chair of pediatric critical care, adult critical care and pediatric pulmonology. He was the founding director of the Mayo Clinic Cystic Fibrosis Center. His research focuses on disease mechanisms, particularly vascular and airway smooth muscle function in pediatric and adult lung diseases. He pioneered the use of aerosolized GM-CSF for autoimmune alveolar proteinosis, later expanding its application to non-tuberculous mycobacterium. He also identified mollicutes, including Mycoplasma hominis, as the cause of transplant-related idiopathic hyperammonemia. His current research explores donor-specific cell-free DNA as a biomarker for transplant graft integrity. Clinically, he specializes in heart and lung transplantation, critical care, cystic fibrosis and both common and rare pulmonary conditions in pediatric and adult patients.
