Welcome | Airways Research Studies

Welcome to the website for the Airways Research Group. The Airways Research Group is dedicated to developing novel new treatments for the prevention and treatment of diseases of the airway including asthma, chronic obstructive lung disease and bronchiectasis. Our research clinic is located in the Gordon and Leslie Diamond Health Care Centre at Vancouver General Hospital. The Lung Centre is affiliated with the University of British Columbia Centre for Lung Health which is a broad collaborative network of UBC affiliated research and clinical care groups.

We conduct several different types of research studies related to lung diseases. On this web page we focus on clinical trials but we are also involved in many projects evaluating health outcomes, especially economic evaluations as well as the role of patient education especially as it relates to improved health literacy and understanding ethnicity related issues in lung diseases.

Our Mission

The Airways Research Group has two main objectives central to our mission of impacting the care of patients with airway diseases:

Apply novel research methods to improve our understanding of the pathophysiology of airway’s diseases (such as asthma and COPD)
In collaboration with a network of investigators evaluate novel new therapies for airways diseases.

Objective

To conduct clinical research, focusing on randomized clinical trials that evaluate innovative new therapies.

What types of research studies do we conduct?

The Airways Research Group conducts clinical trials, which examine the effectiveness and safety of new medications or compounds. Targeted research areas include:

Asthma: Asthma is a chronic (long-term) disease that makes it hard to breathe. Asthma is the result of extreme sensitiveness of the airways (breathing passages) which can be triggered or induced by many different environmental and occupational exposures.
Bronchiectasis: Bronchiectasis is an uncommon disease that affects people’s lungs by damaging the airways (breathing passages). This particular airway disease causes chronic cough with significant sputum production and is associated with recurrent chest infections.
Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (COPD): COPD is a long-term lung disease usually caused by smoking. It is sometimes referred to as chronic bronchitis or emphysema. Symptoms include shortness of breath, wheezing, increased mucus and coughing.