Kulkarni Joins International REMAP-ILD Trial by Andy Currie
Tejaswini Kulkarni , M . D ., M . P . H Photograhy : Nik Layman
Tejaswini Kulkarni , M . D ., M . P . H ., the Director of the Interstitial Lung Disease ( ILD ) Program at UAB , champions efforts to provide quality clinical care to patients with ILD at her center . Dr . Kulkarni is currently principal / co-investigator on clinical trials studying new therapeutics for ILD , and her research focuses on developing imaging biomarkers to predict and assess response to therapy among these patients .
ILDs represent a group of fibro-inflammatory disorders that occur following a variety of exposures , in association with systemic diseases , typically autoimmune conditions , or , in some cases like idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis ( IPF ), without known cause . Currently approved antifibrotic therapies are expensive , have numerous side effects and have limited efficacy . Other therapies , including immunosuppression , are largely based on retrospective studies , except for scleroderma-related ILD and progressive pulmonary fibrosis . Thus , there is an urgent need for new therapies and adaption of innovative clinical trial platforms for fibrotic ILDs .
As UAB ? s ILD Program Director , Dr . Kulkarni has joined as a key member of an international collaborative effort to design , plan , and develop the REMAP-ILD clinical trial . REMAP-ILD , or the Randomized , Embedded , Multifactorial , Adaptive Platform Trial for Interstitial Lung Disease , is a new global network of leading experts , institutions and research networks invested in advancing care for patients with fibrotic ILDs . REMAP-ILD ? s goal is to design an international adaptive platform clinical trial , which can accelerate the assessment of therapies for fibrotic ILD patients by testing multiple interventions within multiple patient strata simultaneously ; potentially improving outcomes in patients with Lukusa-Sawalenith fibrotic ILDs .
Bhatt Elected to ASCI by Adam Pope
Surya Bhatt , M . D ., an associate professor in the University of Alabama at Birmingham Division of Pulmonary , Allergy and Critical Care Medicine and endowed professor in airways disease , has been elected as a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation .
The nonprofit medical honor society comprises over 3,000 physician-scientists from all medical specialties , with a mission to promote the advancement of research that enhances the understanding of diseases and improve their treatment .
? It is an honor to be elected to the ASCI and to be part of such a distinguished community of physician-scientists ,? Bhatt said . ? I am dedicated to pushing the boundaries of pulmonary medicine research through novel and innovative approaches . I am also eager to collaborate with my fellow ASCI members in furthering scientific discoveries .?
Bhatt is a physician-scientist with a focus on research in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease . He serves as the medical director of the UAB Pulmonary Function and Exercise Physiology Lab and the UAB Pulmonary Rehabilitation Program . He also directs the UAB
Surya Bhatt , M . D .
Photography : Steve Wood
Telehealth Pulmonary Rehabilitation Program ? a novel program directed at providing COPD patients with pulmonary rehabilitation at home with the help of telemonitoring and new technology .
Additionally , he established the UAB Lung Imaging Lab for translational research , leading to state-of-the-art lung image processing capabilities at UAB . His groundbreaking work in lung imaging illustrating how airway fractal dimension predicts respiratory morbidity and mortality in COPD was captured in the cover of the Journal of Clinical Investigation in September 2018 .
PULMONARY , ALLERGY , AND CRITICAL CARE MEDICINE