Evaluating whether a particular training program is effective can be difficult if an appropriate comparison group is not available.

From various publications and reports, we have characterized the risks associated with sickle cell disease (SCD) and understand many of the barriers for treatment of SCD in LMICs. How can implementation science research be used to reduce the negative outcomes of SCD in low/middle income countries?

The majority of patients who are resuscitated from OHCA have a presumed cardiac etiology. One of the key interventions post cardiac arrest is to study the coronary circulation for underlying thrombosis. Some centers do this routinely but at other centers interventional cardiologists are hesitant to do this since the mortality rates are high and so affect their individual and institutional performance measures related... more »

Is anyone in your family at risk for a potentially lethal genetic arrhythmia? 4000 young people die each year because they bear a genetic mutation that makes them susceptible to a sudden fatal arrhythmia. The symptoms are easy to identify and awareness of these symptoms would help unsuspecting families.

 

It is estimated that one of these syndromes (LQTS) is 3 times more common in the US than childhood leukemia.

The mechanical events in the wall leading to aortic dissection are not well described because merely stating that cellular or biopolymer connections have weakened does not predict the path of the rupture through the media or the risk of rupture. Elucidate the mechanical role of substructures such as collagen fibers, elastin sheets, smooth muscle cells and interstitial fluid in the progression of dissection. Study in animal... more »

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?

Does screening for pulmonary hypertension (PH) of sickle cell disease (SCD) alter disease outcomes?

Training programs may consider a more green approach by producing easy to access on-line materials and resources to be shared with other training programs and trainees, with a common website repository where such information is archived.

What are there specific alterations of mast cell populations in COPD, and what role do they have in determining specific histopathological phenotypes of the disease?

Can Measuring CD31+EMPs predict loss of lung function, provide potential bio marker for accelerated lung function loss, and predict increased risk for atherosclerosis leading to increased risk for cardiovascular events?

There should be a ramp up in research to address both treatments and management strategies for patient with CF.

A critical challenge in the area of fibrosis research (including heart, lung and other organs) is the absence of a central system to act as air traffic control for progress, innovations and gaps in the science. Like the area of cancer research was 30 years ago, the fibrosis research area is fragmented and disconnected. The answer in the cancer effort to creating a centralized, focused system was with the National Cancer... more »

Getting people to change from a sedentary to active lifestyle is difficult. What institutional supports are most effective? What is the cost benefit of prevention versus treating cardiovascular disease.

Aside from a handful of locations around the country, there are no local opportunities for the vast majority of PhD students to learn about glycobiology. A search on NIH Reporter for T32 grants with "glycobiology” reveals two grants (one NCI for cancer cell biology, one NIGMS for pharmacology). Neither of these grants are focused upon glycobiology. In fact, glycobiology is essentially never integrated into any standard... more »

Institutions that are less research intensive, which may characterize some of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Hispanic Serving Institutions and tribal institutions with primarily minority faculty and/or student body, may need additional support for training researchers and for performing both hypothesis driven and student integrated research to provide an environment conducive with NIH efforts to enhance... more »