ATS and CHEST Letter
The American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST) and the American Thoracic Society (ATS) would like to recognize the efforts of CVS, since 2014, to discontinue its retail sales of tobacco products, especially considering the reduced revenues resulting from such a socially-conscious decision. The fact that recent research published in the American Journal of Public Health has now shown tobacco sales declining 38 percent across all retail outlets is a tribute to the leadership that CVS has shown.
As prescribers, our members have influence over where their patients ultimately decide to have prescriptions filled, and the ATS and CHEST are proud to support the trailblazing decision made by CVS.
We’d like to take this opportunity to again thank the CVS team for putting the welfare of our patients, and their customers, first.
New Sepsis Research Support
The National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) has recently decided to shift its areas of scientific interest related to its portfolio of sepsis research support. In particular, NIGMS will place added emphasis on:
- Research that is patient-based or uses clinical information from people who develop sepsis.
- Research which capitalizes on computational models and informatics, including machine learning and AI.
- Studies that use non-traditional research organisms as models for understanding sepsis.
- Exploratory research that fits our technology development programs, leading to the ability to predict and diagnose sepsis.
NIGMS is most interested in promoting a mechanistic understanding of sepsis, with the aim of developing future therapeutic strategies. NIGMS also seeks to stimulate interest in sepsis research in communities that may not have been aware of the challenges of identifying and treating sepsis patients. Sepsis research needs new investigators, new models, and new approaches!
For more information, see NOT GM 19-054, “NOTICE OF INFORMATION: NIGMS Priorities for Sepsis Research,” or contact Sarah E. Dunsmore, PhD.
WHO Releases 2019 World TB Report
Last week, the World Health Organization released its Global Tuberculosis Report, which found that despite progress, TB remains the leading global infectious disease killer. WHO’s data shows that while TB deaths declined slightly, from 1.6 million in 2017 to 1.5 million in 2018, the number of new TB cases remained steady at about 10 million in both 2017 and 2018. On drug resistant (DR)TB, WHO reports a slight improvement in detection and treatment initiation, with one in three of the approximately half a million people with DR-TB enrolled in treatment in 2018, up from one in four enrolled in treatment in 2017.
The American Thoracic Society joins the WHO in calling for redoubled efforts to end the global TB pandemic by 2030, the goal set by the global community on Sept. 26, 2018 and codified in the United Nations Political Declaration to End Tuberculosis.
Read the report now.
ATS Announces New Corporate Member Company
The ATS is pleased to welcome a new Corporate Member company, Pieris Pharmaceuticals, to the 2019 Corporate Membership Program, which runs through the end of February 2020. Pieris Pharmaceuticals has joined as a Friend Level Corporate Member.
With participation from 30 Corporate Member companies, the ATS Corporate Member Program is a vehicle for collaboration between the ATS and its industry partners, toward the shared goal of improving patient care and education in the pulmonary, critical care, and sleep fields. The program serves as a means for transparent discussion between the ATS and the corporate community about issues and trends that may impact medicine, the advancement of science or patient care, and drug discovery and development in the fields of pulmonary, critical care, or sleep medicine.
To learn more about the 2020 Corporate Member Program, launching in March 2020, contact Vlada Kagan O’Hara.
BEAR Cage
Attention Early career investigators! We are now accepting your innovative translational research proposals for the 6th Annual BEAR (Building Education to Advance Research) Cage Competition for a chance to win $10,000 at ATS 2020 in Philadelphia!
Developed by the ATS Drug Device Discovery and Development (DDDD) Committee to facilitate new opportunities for the next generation of researchers, the ATS BEAR Cage provides three selected finalists the chance to pitch their exciting new ideas to a panel of industry and academia experts in a competitive live forum. Runners-up win $2500 and all finalists receive distance mentorship from the DDDD Committee over the ensuing year to further develop their projects.
