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Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a heterogenous lung condition characterized by chronic respiratory symptoms (breathlessness, cough, sputum production, exacerbations) due to abnormalities of the airways (bronchitis, bronchiolitis) and/or alveoli (emphysema) that cause persistent, often progressive, airflow obstruction. COPD is one of the top three causes of death worldwide, causing more than 3 million deaths in 2012, accounting for 6% of all deaths globally. It thus represents an important public health challenge. Dr. Dennis Jensen’s Clinical Exercise and Respiratory Physiology Laboratory (CERPL), in the department of KPE, has an overarching goal of improving clinical care and health outcomes in people living with chronic lung disease, namely COPD.

The research surrounding this topic in CERPL varies, ranging from elucidating the mechanisms of symptoms such as breathlessness, to management of symptom burden and exercise intolerance. Rachelle Aucoin, 3^rd PhD student, combines both of these goals in her work. Her research focuses on optimizing exercise training outcomes and reducing exertional breathlessness in COPD by using fan-to-face therapy, an affordable and accessible tool that has been shown to be effective in improving the perception of breathlessness. She is also working on uncovering the underlying neurophysiological mechanisms associated with relief of breathlessness using fan-to-face therapy.

Ahzum Mujaddid, 3^rd year MSc student, is interested in validating a wearable technology, the Hexoskin Smart Shirt^TM, to determine if it can be used as a tool to remotely assess the efficacy of prescribed bronchodilator (i.e., inhaler) therapy in treating COPD. As bronchodilator therapy is fundamental to reducing symptom burden and improving the health status of people living with COPD, it is important to identify tools that can detect improvements in health-related outcomes. He believes that his work can allow healthcare providers to assess interventional efficacy outside the clinical care setting as well as optimizing the management of patients.

Emily Russell, 2^nd year MSc student, investigates a slightly different vein of COPD research, where she is researching the individual and combined effects of obesity and COPD on exercise outcomes. She is using patient data from a Canadian-wide longitudinal database called the Canadian Cohort Obstructive Lung Disease (CanCOLD). As the prevalence of obesity in COPD is quite high, the presence of extra adiposity can result in worse health outcomes and breathlessness relative to their normal weight counterparts. She hopes her work can guide future research into the optimization of treatment strategies in this unique population.

While the mechanisms and management of COPD and the associated symptoms remain a complex topic for health care providers and researchers, Dr. Jensen and his team continue to push the boundaries to identify innovative and novel research areas, all in the hope to improve the quality of life of those living with this disease. Ahzum offers, ‘As a graduate student studying COPD, I find it motivating to do research in this area and to understand that identifying optimal treatment and therapy courses along with early intervention can help slow the progression of this disease and improve the quality of life of this population’.

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To find out more about the research being done in CERPL, visit their website.

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