Active collaboration with Dr. Rhonda Szczesniak, Department of Pediatrics, University of Cincinnati, Division of Biostatistics & Epidemiology, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, United States and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

Environmental exposures and community characteristics (geomarkers) have the capacity to profoundly influence pulmonary outcomes and interventions in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF). These non-genetic influences (e.g., socioeconomic status; ambient temperature) explain a big part of the variation in CF lung function, and have been linked to accelerated lung-function decline and pulmonary exacerbation (PE) frequency. The increasing availability of big spatiotemporal data coupled with rich CF registries have not been adequately leveraged to inform dynamic prediction of rapid decline, or to create point-of-care tools applicable to the individual patient. These gaps limit proactive interventions to prevent irreversible lung damage.