International Journal of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Dove Medical Press is pleased to invite you to submit your research to an upcoming Article Collection on "Promoting Optimized Health Care for Individuals with COPD in the Era of Telehealth", organized by Guest Advisors Dr. Yumin Zhou (The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, China, [email protected]), Dr. Juan Chen (General Hospital of Ningxia Medical University, China, [email protected]), and Dr. Ning Deng (Zhejiang University, China, [email protected]) in the International Journal of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.

This subject highlights the telehealth of COPD for better management and care of COPD patients. As we all know, COPD is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, with an economic and social burden that is both substantial and increasing. Patients with COPD typically complain of dyspnea, activity limitation and/or cough and may experience exacerbations that require specific preventive and therapeutic measures. However, many challenges are encountered in delivering preventive and therapeutic measures, including the COVID-19 pandemic and people living far from their healthcare providers and having limited access to services. Now, as a means to mitigate the risk of viral transmission for both patients and clinicians during the COVID-19 pandemic, many health systems have rapidly converted ≥70% of their outpatient visits to telehealth via phone or video delivery. Due to this, telehealth system has become a hotbed of research in recent years.

Telehealth may offer a bridge to care and now offers a chance to consider virtual and hybrid virtual/in-person care models, with a goal of improved healthcare access, outcomes, and affordability. There are many critical potential benefits of telehealth, as follows:
• Telehealth systems may improve COPD medication adherence. Self-management education by telehealth system can help a person understand their disease and the benefits of proper use of medication.
• Telehealth technologies could improve the delivery of healthcare for people with COPD, reduce exacerbations, improve quality of life, anxiety and depression, and lower rates of hospitalization and emergency department visits.
• Tele-rehabilitation has been proposed as an alternative to the traditional approach.

Despite the hope of telehealth as a means of COPD patient care, the evidence base is still evolving, and best practices are not established at this time for COPD. We therefore need much more exploration.

This Article Collection provides a high-quality forum for interdisciplinary researchers to propose novel informatics methods for telehealth to improve patients' mode of visit and health conditions for patients with COPD. We welcome submissions across the evidence spectrum, ranging from studies of component technologies (e.g., sensors, algorithms, and software) to research articles, database articles, software articles, study protocols, reviews, matters arising, comments, etc.

This Collection welcomes submissions covering a range of related areas of telehealth, including but not limited to:
• Remote monitoring plus usual care versus usual care alone.
• Remote consultation plus usual care versus usual care alone (e.g., Face to face visit for a check-up in a health service with a health professional, or as reported by trialists).
• Remote monitoring or remote consultation versus usual care (e.g., where telehealthcare has replaced an element of usual face-to-face care).
• Telehealth interventions' long-term effects.
• Self-education/follow-up/behavioral intervention and compliance monitoring based on the telehealth system.
• The field of telerehabilitation: i) standardization of delivery platform; ii) tests performed remotely allowing for accurate exercise prescription; iii) post-exacerbation rehabilitation, etc.

Keywords:
• Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
• mHealth, Telehealth or Digital Health
• Internet based pulmonary rehabilitation
• Intelligent/personalized healthcare
• Remote monitoring and Interventions

All manuscripts submitted to this Article Collection will undergo desk assessment and peer-review as part of our standard editorial process. Guest Advisors for this collection will not be involved in peer-reviewing manuscripts unless they are an existing member of the Editorial Board. Please review the journal Aims and Scope and author submission instructions prior to submitting a manuscript.

The deadline for submissions is 30 April 2024.

Please submit your manuscript on our website, quoting the promo code KFSQK to indicate that your submission is for consideration in this Article Collection.

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Dove Medical Press is pleased to invite you to submit your research to an upcoming Article Collection on "Precision Medicine in COPD" in the International Journal of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.

Precision Medicine in cancer patients refers to a method of analyzing the genes of cancer cells using a next-generation sequencer, finding the gene mutation that caused the cancer, and using a molecularly targeted drug designed to be effective against that gene mutation. This is also called tailormade or personalized medicine. Is this possible in a real clinical setting in people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)? Although studies on the etiology and pathogenesis of COPD have yielded many insights at the genetic level, unfortunately there are no insights that can be directly translated into the content of treatment for individual patients, and it is not unreasonable to suggest that the application of precision medicine in cancer treatment to COPD may still be a fairy tale.

In general, most medical treatments are designed for the average patient, but this approach may not be effective for everyone. Rather, we would like to think of precision medicine in COPD as: novel strategies for personalizing disease management that take into account variations in the environment, lifestyle, symptoms, and characteristics of individuals. The goal of precision medicine, as many have noted, is to get the right treatments to the right patients at the right time. In the field of medicine for COPD, this policy has been emphasized with increasing importance in recent years and various terms have come into use. A surrogate term for this is "Treatable Traits". Treatable traits have been proposed as an innovative approach to the management of COPD. Many advanced studies and review articles have already been published in the literature on treatable traits, giving an idea of the approaches that have been taken.

The Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) document emphasizes the ABCD assessment tool since 2011, or the recently revised ABE assessment tool, which classifies using symptoms (or dyspnoea) on the horizontal axis and exacerbations on the vertical axis. Dyspnoea and exacerbations may be one of the treatable traits there, which also relates to the basis for determining which drug to administer.

Additionally, COPD patients with a blood eosinophil count (BEC) of 300 cells/mm3 or higher are currently recommended to receive inhaled medications, including inhaled corticosteroids (ICS), because ICS are expected to reduce the frequency of acute exacerbations. In this case, BEC of 300 cells/mm3 or more is considered one of the treatable features and peripheral blood eosinophil count can be positioned as a biomarker.

A definition of Precise Medicine in COPD does not yet exist. This attempt is rather a first step towards a definition. In this sense, we are trying to cover as broad an area of COPD as possible. We hope that different researchers from around the world will submit their ideas without preconceived notions. If you are involved in real clinical practice, the term Precision Medicine may be difficult to grasp as a familiar term because it is an esoteric term and is associated with advanced medicine related to gene therapy. We have no intention of playing with words. We hope to see the development of steady research that directly contributes to the treatment of individual COPD patients in a familiar patient care setting. A slight change in perspective should lead to new insights that are still being overlooked. We hope that everyone from young researchers to experienced clinicians will take a second look at this field of practice and contribute their findings.

It is our great pleasure to invite you to submit articles on the topic of COPD. This article collection, entitled "Precision medicine in COPD", will cover all aspects of clinical investigations regarding COPD. I believe this is the best opportunity to publish your excellent work. Both original articles and reviews are welcome. In light of scientific originality this Article Collection is not currently accepting case reports, case series, meeting reports, photo essays, poster extracts, or study protocols.

Topics include but are not limited to:

• Early COPD or late COPD
• Blood eosinophil count as biomarker
• Asthma and COPD overlap
• Frequent exacerbators
• Patient-reported outcomes
• Health status or health-related quality of life
• Dyspnoea measurement
• Definition of COPD exacerbation

Keywords

• COPD
• precision medicine
• treatable traits
• biomarker
• inhaled corticosteroids

All manuscripts submitted to this Article Collection will undergo a full peer-review; the Guest Advisors for this collection will not be handling the manuscripts (unless they are an Editorial Board member). Please review the journal scope and author submission instructions prior to submitting a manuscript.

The deadline for submitting manuscripts is 30 September 2024.

Please submit your manuscript on our website, quoting the promo code MXSKB to indicate that your submission is for consideration in this Article Collection.

Guest Advisors

Dr. Koichi Nishimura, Visiting Researcher at National Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology, and Director of Clinic Nishimura, Japan

[email protected]

Dr. Nishimura has more than 30 years of experience in the practice of COPD and asthma in Japan since the early 1990s. He spent six months at St. George's University of London in 2012 supervised by Professor Paul Jones to research this. Dr. Nishimura retired from the National Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology (NCGG) of Japan in March 2023 and currently serves as a visiting researcher at NCGG while contributing to community health care in his own clinic.

Dr. Toru Oga, Kawasaki Medical School, Japan

[email protected]

Dr. Toru Oga has been a respiratory physician for about 25 years. His major includes clinical and basic research in asthma, COPD, pulmonary fibrosis, sleep-disordered breathing, and respiratory failure. Dr. Toru Oga has led the Department of Respiratory Medicine, Kawasaki Medical School, as a professor, since 2018.

Dr. Susumu Sato, Kyoto University, Japan

[email protected]

Dr. Susumu Sato is an associate professor at Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine. His experiences are more than 20 years in practicing respiratory medicine, particularly in COPD and pulmonary rehabilitation. He spent two years as a research associate at Boston University and worked with Professor Bela Suki, a distinguished physicist.

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Dove Medical Press is pleased to invite you to submit your research to an upcoming Article Collection on "Sarcopenia and frailty in COPD: Mechanisms, Biomarkers, and Potential Interventions" in the International Journal of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is primarily a respiratory disease with several extra-pulmonary manifestations. For example, many COPD patients present with an advanced form of age-related muscle impairment, called sarcopenia. In addition, these patients may also exhibit reduced physiological reserves and an increased susceptibility to adverse health outcomes, termed frailty. It is generally well recognized that the presence of sarcopenia and/or frailty in COPD patients increases functional dependency, disease exacerbation, and mortality.

Timely recognition and intervention of sarcopenia and frailty are critical for treating COPD. Both these conditions have multifactorial etiologies, necessitating a rigorous characterization of the associated molecular mechanisms and biomarkers before optimal therapeutic interventions are applied. However, the driving molecular mechanisms, biomarkers for identification, and effective therapeutic strategies for sarcopenia and frailty in COPD remain elusive.

This Article Collection aims to unravel the molecular and cellular alterations governing pathogenesis of sarcopenia and frailty in COPD. These may include but are not limited to cellular proteostasis, apoptosis and autophagy, bioenergetics, the roles of satellite cells, muscle vasculature, and myonuclear transcription. We also invite studies investigating the diagnostic potential of novel biomarkers of these conditions in COPD. Here, we aim to primarily unravel the blood biomarkers of muscle or non-muscle origin, that reflect the changes in muscle mass, strength, and frailty phenotype in COPD patients. Lastly, we will reflect on therapeutic interventions, including exercise modalities, novel molecules, nutritional supplements, and other modalities of sarcopenia and frailty in COPD patients.

We invite basic and clinical research for expanding our understanding of disease mechanisms, biomarkers, and therapeutics of sarcopenia and frailty in COPD patients. Original articles, reviews, case reports, and clinical trials are encouraged for submission.

Keywords

• Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
• Sarcopenia
• Frailty
• Biomarkers
• Muscle wasting

All manuscripts submitted to this Article Collection will undergo a full peer-review; the Guest Advisors for this collection will not be handling the manuscripts (unless they are an Editorial Board member). Please review the journal scope and author submission instructions prior to submitting a manuscript.

The deadline for submitting manuscripts is 31 May 2024.

Please submit your manuscript on our website, quoting the promo code GKTXA to indicate that your submission is for consideration in this Article Collection.

Guest Advisors

Rizwan Qaisar, University of Sharjah, UAE

[email protected]

Dr. Qaisar investigates the mechanisms and biomarkers of muscle impairment associated with physical inactivity, aging, and age-related diseases. His work includes evaluating the regulation of muscle contraction at the motor protein, single fibers, and whole muscle levels using in-vitro, in-situ, and in-vivo methods in experimental animal models and clinical settings. Additionally, he investigates the therapeutic interventions to prevent and/or reduce accelerated muscle loss in older adults with age-associated comorbidities.

Johan Lindqvist, University of Arizona, USA

[email protected]

Dr. Lindqvist is interested in how giant sarcomeric proteins influence skeletal muscle function in both healthy and disease states using molecular to whole animal techniques. His disease interests range from inherited to acquired diseases with a focus on the diaphragm, the main respiratory muscle, related pathologies. He has special focus on structural adaptations to diseases.

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Dove Medical Press is pleased to invite you to submit your research to an upcoming Article Collection on "Current insights and future trends for inhalation therapy in chronic obstructive respiratory disease" in the International Journal of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.

Current respiratory inhalers used by individuals with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and/or asthma have been in use since the 1950s, though the practice of using an inhaler device to deliver therapeutic aerosols as a treatment has existed for a thousand years or longer. Having an aerosol formulation as opposed to an oral tablet that requires a device introduces complexity into the treatment regimen. That many patients have difficulty using inhalers in a manner that optimizes treatment is well-documented. Recent literature has begun to differentiate between critical and non-critical errors and how these errors may be associated with suboptimal outcomes, but gaps remain. Methods for improving inhaler technique have been studied and better outcomes are usually associated with interventions, however identifying scalable and reproducible methods is still challenging. For future inhaler development, there is both a desire for low-cost generic inhalers (with healthcare costs increasing globally), alongside an interest in more “high-tech” inhalers capable of interfacing with smart devices.

The connection between suboptimal inhaler technique and worse health outcomes has been demonstrated. The societal burden associated with suboptimal delivery of aerosolized medication is substantive. Insight into how best to address this problem and the extent to which other factors such as patient characteristics (e.g., pediatric, existing visual/physical impairments), setting (inpatient, institutional care, outpatient), frequency of use, intent of use (e.g., rescue vs maintenance), may impact inhaler use is also needed. Finally, identifying a roadmap forward – perhaps “thinking outside the box” may be needed in developing future inhalation devices.

This Article Collection welcomes submissions of original research and systematic review papers as well as opinion articles on current/future technology. Research may include prospective and retrospective studies, clinical trials and observational studies, surveys. Specific areas of interest include:

• Critical vs non-critical inhalation errors and association with outcomes
• Inhaler use among individuals with health limitations (physical and cognitive impairment)
• Pediatric inhaler use
• Scalable interventions to improve inhaler technique/use
• New inhaler technologies in development

Keywords

• Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
• Inhaler technique
• Healthcare technology
• Patient engagement

All manuscripts submitted to this Article Collection will undergo a full peer-review; the Guest Advisors for this collection will not be handling the manuscripts (unless they are an Editorial Board member). Please review the journal scope and author submission instructions prior to submitting a manuscript.

The deadline for submitting manuscripts is 18 August 2024.

Please submit your manuscript on our website, quoting the promo code JHRDC to indicate that your submission is for consideration in this Article Collection.

Guest Advisors

Melissa H. Roberts, University of New Mexico College of Pharmacy, USA

[email protected]

The preponderance of Dr. Roberts’ research is on outcomes associated with chronic disease, particularly with COPD. Her research focuses not only on treatment effectiveness but also on burden associated with having chronic disease and assessing quality-of-life and barriers to improving patient outcomes.

Douglas Mapel, Northern Arizona Pulmonary Associates PLLC, University of New Mexico College of Pharmacy, USA

[email protected]

Dr. Mapel is a founding partner of Northern Arizona Pulmonary Associates of Flagstaff Arizona, and a research affiliate of the University of New Mexico College of Pharmacy. His primary interests are in epidemiology and health outcomes research in chronic pulmonary diseases including COPD, asthma, and interstitial lung diseases. Specific outcomes of interest have included frailty and other multi-dimensional clinical measures as predictors of outcomes, comparative effectiveness of respiratory treatments, and healthcare cost and utilization in COPD.

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