“I am a companion and interpreter on the path of illness — everything else happens within our patients.”

I was born into a family of doctors. My mother is a pediatrician, and my father — who could not have imagined any other career for me — was an obstetrician-gynecologist. At the time, medicine didn’t particularly appeal to me; I wanted to be an actress. But I had to apply to medical school, and I got in. By my third year, when I was finally able to work with real patients, my entire relationship with medicine transformed. I discovered the meaning of studying, and I found my wings. There are two ways a person can have a positive impact on others: through art — someone goes to the theatre, sees a wonderful play, and their life is changed for a brief moment — or through the kind of opportunity I was given, where my vocation allows me to do something that genuinely changes and improves people’s lives.

When I began working in the intensive care unit of a clinic in 1990, I chose somnology as my area of focus — despite strong resistance within the Hungarian medical community at the time. Only Professor György Böszörményi Nagy saw potential in the field. Later, at the Osler Chest Unit of the Churchill Hospital at the University of Oxford, I had the privilege of working under the guidance of John Stradling, an outstanding pulmonologist, somnologist, and physiologist. It was a true centre of excellence: specialists from different fields, generations, and perspectives came together from across the world and worked as a team. It was there that I learned to think in an entirely different way than I had been used to in Hungary. Oxford was where I first encountered an oncology team, where I learned interdisciplinary thinking, and where the democratic, open, and non-hierarchical atmosphere of the entire team made a lasting impression on me.

Together with Professor Böszörményi, János Juhász, our neurologist colleagues Professors Köves and Halász, and Chief Physician Zoltán Szakács, we were pioneers — I was among the first in Hungary to introduce the diagnosis and treatment of sleep-disordered breathing, combining sleep medicine with non-invasive ventilation. I am also proud of the Sing-Lung method, developed together with conductor György Phillip, which incorporates singing into respiratory rehabilitation — providing patients not only with positive outcomes but with a genuine artistic experience, while also fostering a sense of community and reducing breathlessness.

A significant part of my work involves patients with chronic illness — often those in the final stages of COPD or cancer. I frequently accompany them on that final journey. I believe that on every path of illness, I am a companion and an interpreter. Everything else happens within our patients. What comes from medical science must be translated — and I believe that is my greatest task,” says Dr. Katalin Várdi Visy.

Professional Profile

• Graduated from Semmelweis University Faculty of Medicine in 1989. Board certifications: Pulmonology (1993); Somnology (2007); Medical Rehabilitation / Pulmonology (2009).
• Between 1989 and 2007, she worked at the Pulmonology Clinic of Semmelweis University (clinical physician, assistant lecturer, Head of the Sleep Laboratory, senior lecturer). In 1991–92 and 1994, she was a Visiting Research Fellow at the Osler Chest Unit, Churchill Hospital, University of Oxford.
• Between 2007 and 2018, she led the General Pulmonology and Asthma Outpatient Clinic and Sleep Laboratory at Pest County Pulmonary Institute, and later served as Head of the Respiratory Rehabilitation Department.
• Since 2019, she is the founder and director of InspiroMed Respiratory Centre and Sleep Clinic.
• Since 1997, she has been a member of the Hungarian Society of Sleep Diagnostics and Therapy, and served as its secretary from 1997 to 2002 and again from 2006.
• Since 2007, she has been President of the Foundation for Hungarian Pompe Patients.
• In 2018, she established the Breathing for the Soul Foundation, which aims to enrich patients’ experiences and emphasize that healing is a shared endeavour among patients, nurses, and doctors.

Professional and Scientific Interests

• Sleep-disordered breathing
• Treatment of chronic respiratory diseases using non-invasive ventilation
• Cardiovascular and gastroenterological aspects of obstructive sleep apnoea
• Vigilance-related aspects of sleep apnoea
• Vigilance and respiratory regulation
• Rehabilitation following severe illness
• Prevention
• Home mechanical ventilation
• Physiotherapy, dietary, and psychotherapeutic approaches to chronic respiratory disease
• Complex rehabilitation of COPD
• Prevention of COPD
• Oxygen therapy
• The intersection of sleep and respiratory medicine

Awards and Public Roles:

1998 – Ferenc Kováts Award for outstanding scientific work in pulmonology

2008 – Hungarian Pulmonology Society Award for Best Poster

1998 – Member of the Board of the Hungarian Society of Sleep Diagnostics and Therapy; Secretary 2000–2001

2010 – Board Member of the Hungarian Pulmonology Society

2010 – Secretary of the Respiratory Rehabilitation Section of the Hungarian Pulmonology Society

2006 – President of the Foundation for Hungarian Pompe Patients

2018 – Founder of the Breathing for the Soul Foundation