Rick Balestra, MD
About Me
"Nothing is built on stone; all is built on sand, but we must build as if the sand were stone." - Jorge Luis Borges
Dr. Balestra was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He attended medical school at the University of Buenos Aires, where he received his MD. He completed his internal medicine residency at Albert Einstein Medical Center. After his residency, he had a Pulmonary and Critical Care fellowship at Stanford University. The main focus of his fellowship training was lung transplantation. He then went on to pursue fellowship training in Interventional Pulmonology at the University of Cincinnati, where he became proficient in advanced bronchoscopic techniques and helped develop the lung cryobiopsy program. He joined The Oregon Clinic in 2017 attracted to the beauty of the Pacific Northwest lifestyle.
Dr. Balestra is the only physician in Oregon certified to offer the Zephyr Valve procedure to treat emphysema, a minimally invasive procedure that improves lung function for emphysema patients.
Dr. Balestra enjoys skiing and hiking in his free time.
My Work
Education & Honors
- Critical Care Medicine
- Pulmonary Medicine
- Internal Medicine
- Interventional Pulmonary Medicine
- Fellowship, Interventional Pulmonology, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, 2016
- Fellowship, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Stanford University Medical Center, Stanford, CA, 2014
- Chief Residency, Internal Medicine, Albert Einstein Medical Center, Philadelphia, PA, 2011
- Internship and Residency, Internal Medicine, Albert Einstein Medical Center, Philadelphia, PA, 2009
- Residency, Internal Medicine, Hospital J. A. Fernandez, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2007
- MD, Universidad de Buenos Aires School of Medicine, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2004
- Outstanding Resident Award, Albert Einstein Medical Center, June 2010
- Balestra, R., Selvaraju, A., Benzaquen, S. and Zander, D.S., 2017. Pneumonic‐type mucinous lung adenocarcinoma diagnosed by transbronchial cryobiopsy. Respirology Case Reports, 5(3).
- Balestra, R., Benzaquen, S. and Wang, J., 2017. Sarcoidosis-like Granulomatous Lung Reaction Associated with Anti–Programmed Death Receptor-1 Ligand Therapy. Annals of the American Thoracic Society, 14(2), pp.296-299.
- Saenz, A. and Balestra, R., 2011. Bilateral spontaneous pneumothoraces in a healthy young adult. American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine, 184(12), pp.e3-e3.
- Trastornos del Metabolismo del Calcio, in Farmacologia para Nutricionistas de Isolabella D, Reynoso C. Chapter 4, pp 75-100. First Edition. 2005. Grupo Editor Mediciencia (Spanish).
- Member, American Association of Bronchology and Interventional Pulmonology
- Member, American College of Physicians
- Member, Pennsylvania Medical Society