What are the best tools/algorithms for robust and objective evaluations of sleep health biomarkers?

Would improving sleep and circadian rhythms in the critical care setting result in improved patient outcomes (e.g., reduce severity of infection, duration of intubation, length of hospital stay)?

Are dietary fruits and vegetables, particularly leafy greens, protective against cardiovascular disease due to their ability to increase bioavailability of nitric oxide?

What are the most effective trans-disciplinary and multi-level strategies for accelerating psychosocial care with sickle cell disease and how psychosocial factors impact families?

How can we best integrate primary and specialty palliative care into the care of patients with serious heart, lung, and blood diseases?

What are the best, evidence-based models to facilitate holistic care across the lifespan for individuals living with sickle cell?

How can we ensure that patients with serious heart, lung, or blood diseases fully understand their prognosis, treatment options, and the risks and benefits of those options and help them make decisions that fully incorporate their own personal values, goals, and treatment preferneces?

What factors are associated with high quality care coordination in patients with COPD?

Does palliative care and/or hospice care as practiced across communities improve end-of-life care for COPD – specifically, does it reduce the burden of symptoms, improve HRQoL and satisfaction, reduce utilization in last 6 months of life (i.e. hospital visits, cost, invasive ventilation use, etc), improve the end-of-life experience, and increase the concordance of place of death to expressed patient preferences?

What measures other than PFT data can be used to predict risk of 1) COPD exacerbations (e.g., hospitalization, urgent care visit, or ED visit for COPD exacerbation) or 2) relapse (e.g., re-hospitalization, urgent care visit, or ED visit) following hospital discharge after treatment of COPD exacerbations?

How can guideline recommendations be implemented into community practice in a way that is feasible, usable, relevant, and cost-effective? (examples are use of care management, translation of chronic care model, and EMR based tools)

What can be done in primary care settings to increase appropriate provider assessment of the need for oxygen and prescription of LTOT?

How should providers coordinate management strategies and treatment goals in patients with COPD and other co-existing chronic diseases?

Sickle cell treatment centers are located throughout the United States, primarily in urban areas, and play an invaluable role. However, there is a critical need to identify and educate primary care providers who can provide routine and preventive care, but will also know when to consult with/refer to hematologists and other appropriate providers when necessary.

What are the best methods for using genotype information and other EMR data to randomize heart, lung, blood, sleep patients to different treatment strategies? One big challenge is how to consent patients for this sort of trial. Must patients be consented separately for every such trial or could there be blanket consent for participating in the learning health care model? This would also require a paradigm shift in how... more »