? 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 web-casting and publication of this meeting designed to broadcast the entire program over the internet as we successfully did it in our last workshop. ? ? This conference is a four-day workshop that is scheduled for September 14th through 17th, 2006 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 prospective from a diverse group of investigators which will cover topics ranging from novel imaging techniques to physiology, and clinical application of many new methods. The meeting consists of a series of invited talks from individuals who are considered to be the leaders in their projective fields. Much like what we had in 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 four-day workshop on functional pulmonary meeting to discuss state-of-the-art methods for assessment of lung function, (2) To bring together a great variety of expertise from the field 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 audience around the world to participate into meeting discussions, and (5) To identify the complexities associated with assessment of lung function in an open world-wide forum. ? ? Functional pulmonary imaging is a novel, evolving field that provides real-time information about anatomic structure and function of the human body. It is a multi-disciplinary field that combines the expertise of radiology, bioengineering, physics, medicine, and surgery. It will be useful from a public health standpoint because of its potential ability to screen for and diagnose disease at its earliest stage, allowing care-givers to intervene and improve patient outcomes. ? ? ? ?
