National Jewish Health Pulmonologist Gregory Cosgrove, MD, Named Chief Medical Officer of Pulmonary

Gregory P. Cosgrove, MD, associate professor of medicine at National Jewish Health, has been named Chief Medical Officer of the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation. 

Pulmonary fibrosis is a deadly condition that damages lung tissue through thickening and scarring. The most common form, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), has no known cause, and affects up to 200,000 Americans. On average patients live only two to three years from time of diagnosis.

The mission of the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation is to serve as the trusted resource for the pulmonary fibrosis community by raising awareness, providing disease education, and funding research.

Dr. Cosgrove will oversee medical affairs and serve as the primary medical consultant for the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation. He will help define strategic priorities, create new initiatives and enhance existing programs to further the mission and objectives of the PFF. Dr. Cosgrove will continue to practice at National Jewish Health.

“I’m excited to contribute to the PFF at this important time. We are fulfilling the goal of building a broad network of care centers across the United States,” said Dr. Cosgrove.

Two recently announced initiatives, the Care Center Network and the Patient Registry, will be high priorities for Dr. Cosgrove and the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation. The Care Center Network will help to identify and establish best practices for the multidisciplinary treatment of PF. The Patient Registry will become the largest database of PF patient records, providing essential data to improve understanding of the epidemiology, incidence, prevalence, natural history and other clinical characteristics of the disease. It also will help speed clinical trials of promising new therapies.

Other pilot sites for the Care Center Network and Patient Registry are University of California, San Francisco, University of Chicago, University of Louisville, University of Michigan, University of Pittsburgh, Vanderbilt University, University of Washington, and Yale University.

The PFF Patient Registry will be hosted and coordinated by the Duke Clinical Research Institute at Duke University.

The PFF also announced that Kevin Flaherty, MD, MS, professor of medicine in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the University of Michigan Health System, has been named Chairman of the Steering Committee of the PFF Care Network and Patient Registry.