Despite advances in neonatal care, bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) — also called chronic lung disease (CLD) — remains a major source of morbidity and mortality for extremely low birth weight infants.

In addition to our own CLD research, CHOP’s Newborn and Infant Chronic Lung Disease Program participates in the BPD Collaborative, a multi-institution group dedicated to filling knowledge gaps around the care of infants with BPD.

The mission of the BPD Collaborative is to serve as a catalyst for improving the care and long-term outcomes of babies who develop severe BPD by fostering interdisciplinary collaboration and innovation in the identification and treatment of these highly vulnerable patients.

This is accomplished through:

• Sharing data
• Developing and implementing quality improvement initiatives
• Fostering research protocols to address gaps in knowledge

The BPD Collaborative supports the ideas and efforts of groups working on BPD prevention, but the primary focus of the group at this time is improving the outcomes of patients who have established severe BPD.

BPD Collaborative publications

Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia team members are active contributors to BPD Collaborative research. Select publications include:

• Abman SH, Collaco JM, Shepherd EG, Keszler M, Cuevas-Guaman M, Welty SE, Truog WE, McGrath-Morrow SA, Moore PE, Rhein LM, Kirpalani H, Zhang H, Gratny LL, Lynch SK, Curtiss J, Stonestreet BS, McKinney RL, Dysart KC, Gien J, Baker CD, Donohue PK, Austin E, Fike C, Nelin LD. Interdisciplinary care of children with severe bronchopulmonary dysplasia. The Journal of Pediatrics. 2017 Feb; 181:12-28.
• Guaman MC, Gien J, Baker CD, Zhang H, Austin ED, Collaco JM. Point Prevalence, Clinical Characteristics, and Treatment Variation for Infants with Severe Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia. Am J Perinatol. 2015; 32:960-967. PMID: 25738785
• Curtiss J, Zhang H, Griffiths P, Shepherd EG, Lynch S. Nutritional Management of the Infant with Severe Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia. NeoReviews. 2015; 16: e674-e679.

BPD Collaborative projects

• Development of a registry for severe BPD
• Corticosteroids and Severe BPD: Dose, Exposure, Response Modifiers
• Weaning supplemental oxygen post-discharge in severe BPD patients
• Out-patient care in severe BPD
• Parent empowerment in severe BPD
• Potential role for neuronally adjusted ventilatory assist (NAVA) in mechanically ventilated patients with severe BPD
• Development of a national conference on the state-of-the-art in the care of the infant with severe BPD

BPD Collaborative institutions

The BPD Collaborative is comprised of institutions with multidisciplinary teams dedicated to optimizing outcomes of infants and children with severe BPD. Current BPD Collaborative institutions include:

• Boston Children's Hospital
• Children’s Hospital of Colorado
• Children's Hospital of Michigan
• Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
• Children’s Mercy Hospital Kansas City
• Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital
• Johns Hopkins Children’s Center
• Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt
• Nationwide Children’s Hospital
• Texas Children’s Hospital
• University Children’s Hospital (Uppsala, Sweden)
• Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island
• University of Washington
• University of Utah
• University of Massachusetts
• Arkansas Children’s Hospital
• Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford