Karen Patterson, MD

Dr. Karen Patterson became interested in sarcoidosis during medical school when it was the disease most frequently described as "poorly understood". This interest continued to grow during her residency training and beyond: sarcoidosis was the focus of her immunology research during her fellowship training, and of her early career work at the University of Pennsylvania. Following several years abroad in Europe, where she taught at the Brighton \& Sussex Medical School in England while completing a PhD in granuloma biology, she joined the pulmonary faculty at MUSC in 2026. While Dr. Patterson treats all forms and phenotypes of sarcoidosis, she has a particular clinical interest in cardiac involvement and fibrotic lung disease. Her research is dedicated to unravelling the mechanisms of fibrosis in sarcoidosis and she remains driven, since her early days in medical school, to translate research discoveries into clinical applications that improve the lives of patients with sarcoidosis. For additional information about the sarcoidosis program at MUSC, please visit www.musc.edu/sarcoidosis.