Mayo Clinic with Andy Limper

Support from Three Lakes Foundation was used to map out the current diagnostic journey for pulmonary fibrosis, define the impact of existing therapies, and to develop diagnostic tools by analyzing electronic health records. Outcomes of the study include a greater understanding of disease diagnosis, development of diagnostic tools, and identification of a potential therapy, including: 

• Confirmation that metformin has an impact on IPF survival and hospitalization leading to procurement of funding for the design and implementation of a clinical trial.
  

• Publication of a study on IPF misdiagnosis and delayed diagnosis. (ref #4 below)
  

• Development of an artificial intelligence (AI)-based tool to screen for IPF in

  electronic health records that will expedite referrals to pulmonary specialists for accurate diagnosis. Reference

  
  

• A CT screening tool, Toward Earlier Diagnosis of IPF (TED-IPF) was developed

  to predict development of IPF before clinical diagnosis.

  file:///C:/Users/cnutt/Downloads/peikert-et-al-2024-a-novel-radiomics-tool-for-

  early-detection-of-idiopathic-pulmonary-fibrosis%20(2).pdf

  
  

Use of these tools will improve time to diagnosis for people with IPF, including those at remote sites. Additional analysis of electronic health records could lead to the identification of other safe effective treatments.

The overall director of this program was Andrew H. Limper, MD, Associate Dean of Practice Transformation and Annenberg Professor of Pulmonary Medicine at Mayo Clinic. 

Articles from this work:

1. “Outcomes for Hospitalized Patients with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis Treated

with Antifibrotic Medications” published in BMC Pulmonary Medicine Reference

2. “Comparing the Utilization of the Antifibrotic Medications Based on Income Level” published in Chest Reference

3. “Real-world cohort evaluation of the impact of the antifibrotics in patients with

idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis” published in Eur. Resp. J. Res. Letter Reference

4. “Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis in the United States: time to diagnosis and

treatment” published in BMC Pulmonary Medicine Reference

5. “Screening for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis using comorbidity signatures in

electronic health record” published in Nature Medicine Reference

6. “Cost effectiveness of the anti-fibrotics for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis in the United States” published in BMC Pulmonary Medicine Reference

7. “Evaluation for clinical benefit of metformin in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and Type 2 diabetes mellitus: a national claims-based cohort analysis” published in Respir. Res. Reference