? ? Funding is requested to cover the travel and lodging of the invited speakers for an international workshop on functional pulmonary imaging. We are also requesting funds for the web-casting and publication of this meeting; we plan to broadcast the entire program over the internet as we successfully did it in our last workshop. ? ? This conference is a three-day workshop that is scheduled for July 16th through 18th, 2008 and will be held on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania. This workshop is designed to bring together a great variety of knowledge, experience and perspective from a diverse group of investigators; it will cover topics ranging from novel imaging techniques to physiology to the clinical application of many new methods. The meeting consists of a series of talks from invited speakers who are considered to be the leaders in their respective fields. Much like our previous workshop on functional pulmonary imaging, the focus will be on quantitative assessment of lung function, clinical aspects of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, small airway disease, application of new imaging techniques for quantitative assessment of lung function, application of polarized gas for drug discovery, and standardization of new imaging techniques. ? ? The specific aims of this workshop include: (1) To have a three-day workshop on functional pulmonary imaging and to discuss state-of-the-art methods for assessment of lung function; (2) To bring together a great variety of expertise from the fields of medicine, physics, engineering, and physiology from both industrial and academic centers; (3) To broadcast live the entire program over the internet for the whole world; (4) To establish an interactive mechanism for a worldwide audience to participate in meeting discussions; and (5) To identify the complexities associated with assessment of lung function in an open worldwide forum. ? ? ?
