Feinstein Institute gets $1.5M for lung disease rehab study

Joe Nikic

Northwell Health announced Friday that the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research received a $1.5 million grant to study if home-based pulmonary rehabilitation can improve the quality of life and decrease hospitalization of Hispanic patients with moderate to severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD.

“Re-hospitalization is a huge burden for COPD patients and their families,” said Dr. Negin Hajizadeh, the principal investigator of the study, who is an associate professor of medicine at Hofstra Northwell School of Medicine and is in the division of pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine at North Shore University Hospital.  “We want to find a way to bring a therapy we know works — pulmonary rehabilitation — to COPD patients who are most in need.”

COPD, which includes diseases like chronic bronchitis and emphysema, causes blocked airflow and makes it difficult to breathe.

Hajizadeh and Dr. Renee Pekmezaris, who is the co-principal investigator in the study, are looking to register 276 Hispanic COPD patients for the study, Northwell officials said.

Half of the patients will receive standard pulmonary rehabilitation treatment at a hospital, while the other half will receive pulmonary rehabilitation by “telehealth” at their home.

Officials said that the telehealth portion of the study will include an exercise bike and computer tablet for patients’ online rehab sessions with a Spanish-speaking respiratory therapist.

The mission of the study, officials said, is to determine if telehealth rehabilitation can lead to better outcomes than traditional rehab programs, which patients have limited access to because of a lack of insurance or money to make copayments.

“There is a great disparity in the services that are offered and utilized by Hispanic patients with COPD,” said Pekmezaris, who is vice president of community health and health services research at Northwell Health and an associate professor of medicine and population health at the Hofstra Northwell School of Medicine.  “It is difficult for Hispanic patients to gain access to pulmonary rehabilitation, which has shown to be critical for strengthening breathing muscles, learning how to manage the disease and enhancing quality of life.”

“A growing number of studies have suggested that rehab reduces hospitalizations for pulmonary problems,” she said.

Officials said Northwell researchers worked with a Hispanic couple with COPD, an expert in outreach and community health, pulmonologists, a respiratory therapist, a senior biostatistician, a qualitative researcher and members of a Queens-based community organization, El Poder de Decidir, that helps Hispanic people make informed healthcare decisions to develop the study.

“Working with patients and community leaders who have personal experience with managing COPD in the Hispanic community will ensure that the design is practical and acceptable to the people whose lives we are aiming to improve” Hajizadeh said. “We are excited to continue working with these partners as we now implement our study design.”

The $1.5 million grant was awarded by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, or PCORI, which is a Congress-authorized nonprofit organization that funds research to help provide patients, caregivers and clinicians with evidence-based information to make better healthcare decisions.

“This project was selected for PCORI funding not only for its scientific merit and commitment to engaging patients and other stakeholders, but also for its potential to fill an important gap in our health knowledge and give people information to help them weigh the effectiveness of their care options,” said Dr. Joe Selby, executive director of the institute. “We look forward to following the study’s progress and working with the Feinstein Institute of Medicine at Northwell Health to share the results.”

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