Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a serious public health problem responsible for more than 500, 000 hospitalizations, 100,000 deaths, and $15 billion in direct costs of medical care in the United States each year. We propose to form a collaborative COPD CRN Clinical Center at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and the Birmingham Veterans Affairs Medical Center (BVAMC). The UAB/BVAMC Clinical Center will be headed by, Drs. William C. Bailey and J. Allen D. Cooper. The proposed investigators and their research staff have extensive experience in recruitment and retention for clinical trials, as well as study design and implementation. The collaborative effort between UAB and the BVAMC will allow us to quickly and efficiently recruit large numbers of COPD patients for clinical research studies. In addition, the UAB/BVAMC COPD Clinical Center will have access to a large network of experts at the University of Alabama at Birmingham who can assist in the design and implementation of clinical trials. The UAB/BVAMC Clinical Center proposes two studies aimed at enhancing treatment for moderate-to severe COPD. The first study will examine measures of inflammation and responsiveness to bronchodilator challenge, responsiveness to systemic steroid treatment, and responsiveness to inhaled steroid treatment. This study may provide a new method for identifying subgroups of COPD patients who are most likely to respond to inhaled corticosteroids. The second project will examine the causes of poor responsiveness to the pneumococcal vaccine with the long term goal of using this information to reduce pneumococcal infections and related exacerbations in COPD patients. The UAB/BVAMC Clinical Center also proposes a Clinical Research Skills Training Core. Dr. J. Allen D. Cooper, the Director for fellowship training in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at UAB, will head this core. Trainees will be funded for a total of two years and will be required to enroll in one of the UAB K30 Clinical Research Curriculum Development Award components (either the Clinical Research Training Program or the Master's of Science in Public Health in Clinical Research). Trainees will also receive funding for a pilot project, which will be developed and conducted under the supervision of the Training Core Investigators. These Investigators have expertise in COPD, Clinical Research and Study Design, Behavioral Science, Epidemiology, and Statistics.
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