Program areas at The Chest Foundation
Since its inception, The Chest Foundation (The Foundation) has offered members of The american college of Chest physicians (Chest) opportunities to secure grants for clinical research projects in disciplines of pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine, and on topics ranging from asthma to lung cancer. The Chest Foundation partners with other organizations to create research opportunities in over 10 disease states and collaboratively offers monetary awards to support clinical research that leads to improvement in patient care. Award applications are peer-reviewed by Chest clinician committees who then select recipients using a detailed scoring rubric. The Foundation tracks progress of all clinical research and community service award recipients over time. The Foundation also offers community service grants to support significant community-based projects that benefit from The volunteer service of Chest members worldwide. Selected projects must show a clear impact on their community and have potential for long-term sustainability and replicability. The grants are paid to The non-profit or non-governmental organization in which The Chest member donates time and medical service.
The Chest Foundation develops, often with patient advocacy partners, high quality peer-reviewed patient education materials and tools across more than 60 lung health topics. The Foundation disseminates those materials to patients, caregivers, The general public, as well as members of Chest. Dissemination and awareness of high-quality materials are delivered via Chest's communication channels, social and new media, The Foundation's website, topic-specific micro-sites, patient-facing partner organizations, and other external channels and partners that reach clinicians, patients, caregivers and The public. In addition, The Foundation has developed national, comprehensive, multi-channel disease specific campaigns that focus on lung health barriers and areas of interest that reach patients, their families, and their healthcare providers. Information developed and disseminated in The campaign, often in coalition with other organizations, may range from causes, symptoms, prevention, diagnosis, treatment and tools that meet The needs of patients, caregivers and clinicians. Typical lung conditions covered are: asthma, copd, lung cancer, pulmonary arterial hypertension and interstitial lung disease (like pulmonary fibrosis). Through these patient-and-clinician focused projects and campaigns, The Foundation is providing information and tools that empower a community of patients and caregivers to more effectively communicate with healthcare providers, make more informed decisions about their health, and participate more fully in managing their disease or condition.