Dr. Ruhl is a pulmonologist in the Physiology Unit, Laboratory for Malaria and Vector Research, NIAID and the Pulmonary Branch, NHLBI. She is the team leader for clinical research efforts within a translational research program focused on the role of alpha thalassemia in vascular disease, including the effects of alpha globin gene variants on renal function, malaria and in people living with sickle cell disease. She is screening subjects for variations in alpha globin gene variants and collecting biospecimens in order to identify and describe the underlying changes in pathophysiology, including vascular phenotypes, based on alpha globin gene variants.
Dr. Ruhl is engaged in population health studies to evaluate potential impacts of alpha globin gene variants on several health outcome measures in large regional and national cohort studies. She serves on the Pulmonary Consult Service and routinely sees patients in the Sickle Cell Program at the NIH Clinical Center. Dr. Ruhl was Co-Chair and co-first author of the 2019 Official American Thoracic Society (ATS) Clinical and Research Priorities in Sickle Cell Lung Disease Workshop Report, which brought together 34 multi-disciplinary international experts in sickle cell lung disease. She has also been Co-Chair of several other ATS efforts including a symposium and Post-graduate course on sickle cell lung disease. Dr. Ruhl attended the University of Virginia School of Medicine and completed internal medicine training in the Osler Medical Residency at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. She completed a combined fellowship in critical care medicine at the NIH Clinical Center and pulmonary medicine at the Johns Hopkins Hospital and received a Master of Health Sciences from the Duke University School of Medicine.