CIMIT’s Inhalation Technology Program (ITP) explores using the respiratory tract to diagnose and treat both acute and chronic respiratory and non-respiratory ailments. Respiratory diseases, from infections to obstructive lung disease to cancer, are major public health problems, and acute respiratory infections are the third largest cause of death worldwide. This CIMIT program seeks to develop technologies to facilitate inhalation therapy that will help reduce human suffering and eventually health care costs.

Three priorities differentiate the CIMIT Inhalation Technology Program from all others:

1. Leadership: To lead toward medical technology research areas that address significant unmet clinical needs in society. The Program Leaders and the Scientific Advisory Council provide guidance and leadership in prioritizing areas of importance.
   
   
2. Facilitated Research: To facilitate the expansion of medical technology research related to pulmonary and inhalation therapy.  Leaders of the CIMIT program seek to expand the field of study through Inhalation Technology fellowships, research grants and support of core program resources.  To enable this expanded research and augment the program, leaders actively pursue additional funding from philanthropic organizations and foundations, non-governmental organizations and potential industrial partners.
   
   
3. Education: To develop related educational modules and convening events ranging from the latest on clinical problems and technological approaches in Inhalation Technology and techniques to tutorials on new developments in related medical devices, Intellectual Property, research partnerships and funding plans.

Progress has been made on each of these aims. Three top researchers lead this program, Augustine Choi, MD, of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Jose Venegas, PhD, of Massachusetts General Hospital, and Jussi Saukkonen, MD, of Boston Medical Center and the West Roxbury Veterans Administration Medical Center.  Several luminaries in the field have joined the Inhalation Technology Advisory Council and several potential industry partners and research organizations are actively participating in the program consortium.

In the program’s first year, three Inhalation Technology projects were awarded funding and facilitation grants by CIMIT. Two Clinical Investigators working in the field of Inhalation Technology received the CIMIT Young Clinician Award, and one Medical Research grant through Department of Defense was awarded.

Five educational CIMIT forums were dedicated to Inhalation Technology in 2009. Summaries and videos of Forum and 2009 Summer Education Series are available online.  Research results are published in peer review journals and presented at national meetings.  

The ITP’s future work plan seeks to move forward on all three aims. To advance the program’s leading-edge vision, CIMIT is finalizing a high-level Scientific Advisory Council and establishing an Inhalation Technology Consortium by recruiting investigators, companies, organizations into the program. To facilitate research, the team  will establish CIMIT core research tools or resource centers, enthusiastically support its research project award recipients, actively seek other grant and funding opportunities to support ITP research priorities and explore international collaborative opportunities. 

The ITP advances its educational mission through Focus Sessions at the CIMIT Innovation Congress, new convening opportunities through webcasting of the CIMIT Forum, and the three-day Harvard Lung Conference and CIMIT Inhalation Technology Workshop scheduled for fall, 2010.  All events showcase ITP research and novel technologies for diagnosis and treatment of lung diseases. 

Significant progress is being made in establishing the CIMIT Inhalational Technology Program as the world-leading resource in research and treatment of serious respiratory conditions.