Effective approaches are needed to halt the epidemic of atrial fibrillation (AF) and its associated morbidity.

We need new ideas in how to make clinical trials more efficient and cost effective. (Randomized) comparison of different methods for accrual might be of interest; blinded versus unblinded trials; behavioral controls versus placebo controls or usual care controls might be explored.

As the current chair of the Research and Training Division, I would like to convey that the AAAAI membership would like the NHLBI to consider the following in the development of its strategic plan: Asthma appears to be due to heterogenous etiologies.  To better characterize the various phenotypes and potential etiologies, it would be important to create more epidemiologic and biomarker focused databases, which could ...more »

Clinical research, especially randomized pharmaceutical clinical trials, poses many unique challenges compared to research in adult subjects. In pulmonary arterial hypertension, a disease characterized by high blood pressure of the lungs with increased pulmonary vascular resistance leading to right ventricular failure, there are 12 FDA-approved PAH-targeted therapies for adults. None of these medications are currently ...more »

A way for clinical trial investigators to submit ONE application with ONE review and ONE funding decision, and the application would ask for funding from multiple funders (e.g. NHLBI and another IC, NHLBI and PCORI, NHLBI and AHA, NHLBI and CIHR, NHLBI and MRC).

A critical challenge is the need to bring together basic behavioral scientists interested in understanding human behavior at a fundamental level, including how and why people become motivated and capable of undertaking behavioral changes, with clinical researchers interested in developing and testing new strategies for tackling resistant behavioral problems such as obesity and non-adherence.

Several inhibitors of PCSK9 are in phase 3 development and show considerable promise for improving the lipid profile; they will be especially appropriate for patients with Familial Hypercholesterolemia and those with statin intolerance. The sponsoring pharmaceutical companies need to complete CVD endpoint trials with full safety testing. However, there may well be more than one drug approved for marketing. The sponsors ...more »

As the current chair of the Research and Training Division, I would like to convey that the AAAAI membership would like the NHLBI to consider the following in the development of its strategic plan:

Are the current methodologies for clinical trials still the best practices for conducting efficient clinical trials?

Continued and expanded support for the Cardiothoracic Surgical Trials Network (CTSN) and Pediatric Heart Network (PHN) is essential as both design, conduct, and analyze multiple, collaborative clinical trials that evaluate surgical interventions, and related management approaches for the treatment of cardiovascular disease. To date both networks have reported on and developed a portfolio of studies which need continued ...more »

There are increasing demands on clinicians for clinical productivity and increasing both clinical and research regulatory requirement. A paralle trend is an increase in clinical trials being conducting outside of US, which is a significant concern in terms of US participation and data applicability to US patients, and the quality of trials data from other regions. These trends have multiple roots spanning from patients ...more »

What structural changes need to be implemented in the health-care community in order to support the use of genomic information in clinical trials and drug development for hematologic diseases?

What are informative and clinically relevant biomarkers of pulmonary hypertension (PH)?