NIH Awards Inova Health System $1.5 Million Contract for Lung Disease Program
November 13, 2007
Dual Program to Focus on Developing New Medications for Diseases
Falls Church, VA - Inova Health System’s Pulmonary Vascular Program has
entered into a $1.5 million contract with the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health
(NIH) in an effort to establish a new combined Advanced Lung Disease Program.
The goal of the program is to establish a center of excellence at two campuses
for the treatment of patients with pulmonary hypertension and other forms of
advanced lung diseases, and to offer cutting-edge therapies aimed at reversing
the primary disease processes that affect patients with advanced lung
disease.
“This prestigious collaboration between Inova Health System and the
NIH is a sterling example of how today’s leading clinicians and researchers can
forge partnerships to bring innovative patient-care solutions from the bench to
the bedside,” said Steven Nathan, MD, medical director, Advanced Lung Disease
Program, Inova Heart and Vascular Institute. “This contract will enable us
provide to a tremendous service to our patients and to the wider medical
community as we develop new insights and therapies for treating pulmonary
hypertension and other forms of advanced lung disease.”
As part of the partnership, clinical researchers will work with pulmonary
hypertension patients at both Inova Fairfax Hospital and the NIH campus
conducting assessments, establishing multiple clinical trials, and giving
patients access to ground-breaking research and treatment. The joint program
will also provide for collaborative conferences between the two campuses as well
as fellowship training for physicians.
According to the American Heart
Association, pulmonary hypertension is a disease that impedes the heart's
ability to pump blood through the lungs, resulting in an inadequate supply of
oxygen and nutrients reaching the body's organs. The high pressure within the
lungs can lead to pulmonary vascular disease, in which the vessel walls become
thick in response to the high pressure. Pulmonary hypertension may be due to a
number of different causes, such as lupus, congenital heart defects, blood
clots, or the use of certain appetite suppressants. Between 100,000 and 200,000
people are affected by pulmonary hypertension worldwide.
For more information
about clinical trials, call 703-776-2580, or visit Inova online at
www.inova.org/research.
Contact:
Che Parker
703-321-2559
Jeanne Mayer
703- 321-2918
Kimberly Gibbs
703-504-3438
