Clinical trials

Coughing affects almost all individuals with ILD leading to physical, psychological and social distress and prevents individuals from performing their activities of daily living, working or socialising in public places. Unfortunately, there are no licensed medications available to treat chronic cough and the few drugs that have been tried resulted in little efficacy and significant side effects. Drug-free cough control interventions have shown promise in reducing the severity and impact of coughing on patients' lives but have not been tested in individuals with ILD. This study aims to explore the feasibility and effectiveness of a non-pharmacological cough control therapy, as an adjuvant of pulmonary rehabilitation, in patients with ILD and chronic cough (\>8 weeks in duration).

Loss of a lower limb due to diabetes can have a devastating impact on physical and mental health and quality of life. Individuals are at risk of other diseases such as cardiovascular disease, loss of the other limb and death. Physical activity can reduce risk of chronic disease and improve health outcomes; however, physical activity levels in people with limb loss are low, often due to reduced balance and walking ability. Rehabilitation services are not readily available and the cost of delivering such programs remains high. Working with individuals with lower limb amputation, we created a virtual, peer-led physical activity behaviour change intervention called IMproving Physical Activity through Coaching and Technology following Lower Limb Loss (IMPACT-L3). We will conduct a pilot study to assess feasibility and optimize design of a future trial of effectiveness.

Pulmonary rehabilitation is a program that helps people with lung disease improve their function. It uses exercise, education, and self-management strategies to improve physical ability and quality of life. Because some people are unable to visit West Park Healthcare Centre, we established a remote supervised pulmonary rehabilitation program that patients can access via an electronic device (computer, tablet or smart phone). Regular quality assurance is necessary to ensure that the program is effective. We plan to collect and summarize the program's results. The benefit of doing so is that it allows us to make any changes or improvements that may help patients with chronic respiratory conditions.

Despite evidence on the psychometric properties of sit-to-stand (STS) tests in chronic respiratory disease (CRD) populations, most studies have been conducted face-to-face. Given the recent emphasis on virtual pulmonary rehabilitation (VPR), there is a need to identify reliable and valid exercise tests that can be delivered in home-based settings, either supervised remotely or self-administered by patients. A repeated-measures crossover design will be used to test the home-based administration of STS tests. The 30-second STS (30-s STS) and 1-minute STS (1-min STS) tests will be randomly administered across three test conditions (centre-based, remotely supervised, and self-administered). Data will summarize the feasibility of remotely supervised and self-administered STS tests and compare the performances of centre-based tests with remotely supervised and self-administered versions of STS tests in patients with CRD.