Principal Investigator

Dr. Selwyn Spangenthal is Board Certified in Internal Medicine and Pulmonology and is a Certified Physician Investigator through the Association of Clinical Research Professionals (ACRP). He studied medicine at the University of Cape Town, South Africa and attained MRCP (Member of the Royal College of Physicians) in London, United Kingdom. His Pulmonary fellowship was done at Tufts New England Medical Center, 1980-1982. Dr. Spangenthal has been the Principal Investigator on numerous Clinical Research studies since 1987. A great number of these drugs are now FDA approved and readily available for patient care worldwide. Dr. Spangenthal is the leading physician at American Health Research and owner of Clinical Research of Rock Hill, Clinical Research of Charleston and Clinical Research of Lake Norman. Outside of patient care Dr. Spangenthal enjoys spending time with his wife, children and grandchildren, running, yoga, watching movies, reading and going to the theater.

Principal Investigator

Dr. Humphries was a Morehead Scholar at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is past chairman of the North Carolina Asthma Board and has been active in asthma research. Throughout his career, he has personally evaluated over 25,000 patients with asthma and allergic diseases and earned the 2010 Charlotte Top Docs Award. He is frequently consulted on patients who have chronic asthma and those with severe allergic rhinitis.

The father of 6 children, Dr. Humphries enjoys traveling, scuba diving, fishing, and doing projects on his farm.

Principal Investigator

Dr. Patel became a physician because it fulfills three of her life passions: learning and teaching, serving the community, and creating meaningful human relationships. She enjoys seeing patients of all ages with a wide spectrum of allergic and immune diseases. Her special areas of interest include food allergies, adverse reactions to drugs, allergic rhinitis, and asthma. Dr. Patel is a native of South Williamson, Kentucky. She has been involved in both clinical and basic science research throughout her career. Dr. Patel is a member of American Academy of Asthma, Allergy and Immunology; the American College of Asthma, Allergy and Immunology; the American Medical Association; and the American Academy of Pediatrics. She serves as teaching facility member at Levine Children’s Hospital.

Dr. Patel enjoys spending time with her husband and three children, cooking, and reading.

Principal Investigator

Dr. Black was attracted to the medical profession and to pediatrics due to the immediate impact he was able to make on his patients’ lives. Completing his residency in General Pediatrics and a fellowship in Pediatric Pulmonary, he focused on treating children with allergies, asthma, and Cystic Fibrosis. As an adjunct teaching professor for the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, he enjoys teaching local physicians in training (residents) and medical students from UNC Chapel Hill. He has been a part of the UNC medical school teaching program in Charlotte for 15 years. Dr. Black has done extensive research on Cystic Fibrosis and is co-director of the Western Carolina Cystic Fibrosis Center. Additionally, he has ongoing participation in asthma related research and is currently active in the Charlotte Pediatric Medical Society. He was awarded the Charlotte Top Docs Award in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 in pediatric allergy and pediatric pulmonary medicine.

In his spare time, Dr. Black spends time with his wife and two children, and he helps in community outreach efforts to shelter homeless families.

Principal Investigator

Dr. Ashe became interested in medicine in college, first as a volunteer then as an orderly. He saw how appreciative patients could be to the smallest amount of care and attention. Dr. Ashe was naturally drawn to pediatrics due to children’s honesty, directness, and ability to recover from the most serious conditions. He enjoys the uniqueness of pediatric pulmonary medicine and providing care to a variety of chronic illnesses such as premature lung diseases, cystic fibrosis, and asthma. Dr. Ashe, also, is an advocate for children with debilitating handicaps. He greatly enjoys being a doctor and is rewarded everyday from his patients’ smiles of gratitude as they work together to enhance their quality of life. Dr. Ashe specializes in pediatric respiratory and allergy diseases and has practiced in the Charlotte region for the past nineteen years. He is co-director of the Western Carolina Cystic Fibrosis Center and Assistant Director of the Holy Angels Institute. He has served on numerous pediatric medical committees and boards and is actively involved in medical education in the community. Dr. Ashe was awarded the Charlotte Top Docs Award in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2014.

He enjoys a number of outdoor activities and is an avid golfer. He and his wife have 3 children.

Principal Investigator

In college, Dr. Johnston was drawn to Immunology and considered a career as an immunologist. After spending time working in the lab, he realized that it would be much more exciting to treat people with immune disorders and allergy, especially since he grew up having both allergies and asthma. Dr. Johnston was attracted to Osteopathic medicine because its core principles focus on the body’s ability to function as a whole and heal itself, a key role of the immune system. Aside from allergies and asthma, Dr. Johnston has an interest in hereditary angioedema (HAE), a rare genetic swelling disorder. He has published several articles on this topic and has had the opportunity to educate physicians on HAE both in the US and internationally.

He is very passionate about food allergy which stems from having a child with peanut allergy. In addition, Dr. Johnston has had to opportunity to treat a large number of patients with eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) and has published an abstract demonstrating that diets guided by skin prick and atopy patch tests are a successful approach to treating many patients with EoE. He had the pleasure of speaking at the 2011 APFED national patient conference.

Dr. Johnston is a fellow of the ACAAI, AAAAI and a member of the Clinical Immunology Society. He is an Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine/ Allergy & Immunology at the Edward Via School of Osteopathic Medicine in Spartanburg, SC. Dr. Johnston is also a member of the AAAAI AAAAI Allergic Skin Disease Committee and is the featured allergist on the Allergy and Asthma Foundation of America’s “Ask the Allergist” website.

When not working, he enjoys traveling with his family and cooking.