What is the comparative effectiveness of short-term vs. chronic (indefinite) pulmonary rehabilitation on patient-reported outcomes (symptom frequency, activities of daily living, quality of life, sleep quality, exacerbations)?

What is the comparative effectiveness of using symptoms vs. spirometry in increasing patient and provider adherence to COPD treatment guidelines and patient-reported outcomes (symptom frequency, activities of daily living, quality of life, sleep quality, exacerbations)?

What are the molecular phenotypic differences in blood and tissue of IPF ILD and how do they relate to disease course and potential response to therapy. There is a need to gain understanding in humans of the differences and similarities in iPF and iLD in general to eliminate the idiopathic nature and establish human targets. The challenge is coupling such research to longer term studies/outcomes and potentially clinical ...more »

Does use of periodic and automatic multidisciplinary team consultation improve care and health outcomes of patients with COPD?

There is a need to establish markers that are predictive of future trainee success.

What are the biologic mechanisms and risk factors that lead to prolonged morbidity in survivors of ARDS and sepsis? What factors during the acute disease phase distinguish patients that recover from those that develop long-term physical, psychological, or cognitive deficits?

What is the clinical effectiveness of pulmonary rehabilitation in reducing hospital admissions and readmissions, improving health outcomes such as exercise tolerance and dyspnea, and positively impacting patient centered outcomes. Does this effectiveness vary based on the types of settings rehab is conducted in, urban vs rural environments, the components to the program, the timing of the program and the overall support ...more »

Out of hospital cardiac arrest remains a major cause of mortality in the United States and there is a large variability in survival within communities. We need to better understand the reasons for this variability which include patient, event, EMS system and care processes and work as a nation to reduce the variability but adopting best practices and actively addressing the barriers to change which can be social, cultural, ...more »

Does a protocol-based screening for commonly occurring comorbid conditions in patients with COPD (eg. CAD, CHF, depression, sleep apnea) improve management and outcomes for patients with COPD?

What is the comparative effectiveness of prescribing continuous LTOT in COPD that targets fixed oxygen flow rates vs. oxygen saturation on patient-reported outcomes (symptom frequency, activities of daily living, quality of life, sleep quality, exacerbations)?

What ICU organizational factors, such as staffing, protocols, or telemedicine, best facilitate adherence to evidence-based practices and improve patient outcomes?

What types of newer patient-centered quality of life assessment tools can be employed in heart, lung, blood and sleep studies so that they can be validated and refined to improve our measurement of quality of life outcomes in populations of interest to NHLBI?

How can methods and metrics capable of conducting high quality T4 research be developed to accurately capture outcomes and the overall impact new T4 knowledge has on population health for heart, lung, blood, sleep diseases and disorders?

What trainee outcomes will best fulfill the mission of NHLBI, and what programs best promote these outcomes?

The lack of large-scale data sources that provide a) detailed clinical phenotyping; b) longitudinal assessment of independent variables (incident events, medications, testing); c) collection of a broad range of outcomes, including patient-reported outcomes including health status.