As part of ATS’s ongoing advocacy efforts, the ATS Executive Committee is meeting with heads of key NIH Institutes to discuss opportunities and challenges in pulmonary, critical care and sleep research. The ATS has met with leaders from the National Institutes of Nursing Research, National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Disease, and the National Institutes for Minority Health and Health Disparities. The ATS Executive Committee will soon meet with leaders from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and the National Cancer Institute.
While each meeting is unique and addresses Institute specific areas, a few common themes have emerged from the meetings. One prominent theme was health disparities, including continuing focus on health disparities, both in terms of the research workforce, under representation in clinical trials and applying effective tools to close the health equity gap. A second theme was climate change and how it will impact human health across a wide range of acute and chronic diseases. Wildland fire smoke and better understandings its impact on human health was another important component of the climate change discussions. A third theme was big data. Nearly all the Institutes are working to expand access to large data sets to exploit the opportunities of large data analysis. Investing in the next generation of scientists also was a common discussion point in the NIH meetings.
In addition to NIH leadership, ATS leaders also met with Chief Research and Development Officer at the VA research program – Rachel Ramoni DMD ScD to discuss research needs in the VA. VA investment in the lung cancer precision oncology program, or LPOP, was a key discussion point in that meeting, as well as how the LPOP research model could be applied to other respiratory conditions.