The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) have committed $1,986,406 in funding across four years to support a large-scale UBC research project titled "IMplementing Predictive Analytics towards efficient COPD Treatments" (IMPACT).
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a progressive, inflammatory lung disease affecting millions of Canadians. Patients with COPD often experience “lung attacks” or worsening of symptoms. Lung attacks are the second most common cause of hospitalization in Canada.
The IMPACT project will use a clinical tool embedded in Electronic Health Records (EHRs) to help improve prediction of lung attacks based on individual markers, and better communicate risks for such symptom exacerbation to patients. Researchers will work closely with patients, physicians, and administrators to integrate the prediction tool into clinical practice and a randomized controlled trial will be conducted at two participating hospitals to evaluate clinical outcomes. The IMPACT project may serve as a “template” for using EHR-embedded clinical tools to better manage other chronic conditions in the future.
Principle investigators on the IMPACT project are Dr. Mohsen Sadatsafavi, associate professor, UBC Pharm Sci, and Dr. Donald Sin, UBC Medicine. Dr. Sadatsafavi specialises in using quantitative modeling techniques to make predictions, both at the individual and population levels. His work predominantly focusses on chronic respiratory diseases and utilises data from clinical trials and population-based health databases.
IMPACT project co-investigators include UBC Pharm Sci faculty members Drs. Larry Lynd, Mary De Vera, and Annalijn Conklin, together with researchers from UBC School of Population and Public Health, UBC School of Nursing, UBC Department of Statistics, Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute, Sunnybrook Research Institute and Unity Health Toronto, and patient partners.
To learn more about the IMPACT project, click here.
To learn more about respiratory disease research at UBC, click here.