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Centre for Lung Health
The Centre for Lung Health (CLH) brings together researchers based at the University of British Columbia and its affiliated academic teaching hospitals and organizations, including BC Cancer Agency, BC Centre for Disease Control, Children's & Women's Health Centre, St. Paul's Hospital, and Vancouver General Hospital. The integration of lung health researchers across a broad spectrum will foster a multidisciplinary approach, combined with a philosophy of cooperation and collaboration among the researchers, physicians, and technicians. These talented people who are exploring common origins and overlapping features of lung diseases will have access to shared resources with the ultimate goal of accelerating the pace of research discovery and bringing these discoveries to patients in a timely manner. The Centre will build on the already recognized international reputation of our lung health researchers and establish itself and its partners as global leaders in research, clinical care, and education. Our initial targeted aim is to reduce health care utilization by 20% for COPD related acute exacerbations in British Columbia in the next three years. We will achieve this by developing uniform clinical pathways and action plans for acute COPD exacerbations.
Who we are and what we do
• An interdisciplinary, virtual, academic and clinical network composed of approximately 200 investigators at affiliated institutions across the province of BC, with the central hub located in Vancouver
• Provide state-of-the-art care at multiple health sites for all lung diseases
• Train new health care professionals in a wide range of disciplines, with a focus on sub specialty training programs that will attract the best and brightest trainees to British Columbia
• Provide an environment rich in learning and hands on experience for nurses and allied health professionals to excel in clinical care, education and research
Objectives
• Refine established models of chronic disease management and improve care delivery models for such common diseases as COPD and asthma
• Establish BC as a major partner in the National Framework for Lung Health
• Continue in a leadership role to better define the pathogenesis of novel disease mechanisms involving gene/host/ environment in order to improve the care of patients
• Focus on tuberculosis as there is an ongoing epidemic in less developed countries as well as in marginalized groups such as Aboriginal Canadians
• Focus on, and take a leadership role in, assessing the impact of climate change on lung health
• Focus on research and discovery in acute lung injury and the often associated sepsis syndrome
• Discover new avenues of research for early detection and treatment of lung cancer
• Identify and better characterize patients with sleep disordered breathing and its systemic impact with a focus on cardio vascular effects
• Promote research, discovery, and better management of patients with interstitial lung disease and pulmonary hypertension
• In collaboration with community partners
o improve public lung health education
o provide a framework to deliver new knowledge to the community
o refine established models for chronic disease management
o increase awareness of climate change and its impact on lung health
o increase awareness about lifestyle and its impact on lung health
o improve health literacy