Memos

Editor's Memo

For this issue of Advances, we are highlighting PHA's 2018 International PH Conference and Scientific Sessions and summarizing the sessions that took place during this biannual event. Much of the Conference was devoted to discussion of unmet needs in pulmonary hypertension/pulmonary arterial hypertension (PH/PAH). Despite many advances in the last decades, there are obviously still many challenges. Also covered was whether the rapidly advancing field of precision medicine could be extended to PH/PAH and could mitigate many of these remaining issues and improve outcomes in our patients. I thank Vinicio de Jesus Perez for serving as Guest Editor of this issue. He assembled an outstanding group of contributors to summarize this Conference and highlight the discussions for those of you who were not able to attend. Vinicio and I hope you enjoy reading this issue and that, after reading it, you are able to sense the excitement of these sessions and the optimism with which we move forward in tackling this disease.

On another note, this is my last issue as the Editor-in-Chief of Advances. I am passing the torch to Deborah Levine, who already has a slew of great issues in the works. I hope that during my 2 years I have built on the work of previous Editors, moved the journal forward, improved it, and made you—the PH community—proud of it. In fact, I could not have done it without you: you have read the issues; critiqued them; offered suggestions; and, in many cases, contributed manuscripts. I know there will be changes to Advances in the near future, but the goal of making it a resource for the PH/PAH community should not change and should only be strengthened. Lastly and most importantly, a sincere shout-out to Deb McBride for making my 2 years so much easier and so much fun; literally, I could not have done this without her. Thanks everyone and rock on!

Guest Editor's Memo

The last decade has brought major discoveries, ranging from new drugs to mechanistic insights into the causes of various forms of pulmonary hypertension (PH). Most importantly, we have seen the emergence of precision medicine, an initiative that seeks to individualize the care of patients by integrating multiple data points into a cohesive approach that will result in long-term benefits for our patients. Indeed, the time is ripe for testing the efficacy of the precision medicine approach in PH given the availability of cutting-edge technologies and the wealth of data readily available from large-population studies.

PHA's 2018 International PH Conference and Scientific Sessions program was an effort to bring the scientific community together to discuss the unmet needs in the field of PH and determine whether precision medicine could help to resolve these problems. A major highlight of the day was the presentation by Dr Norman Stockbridge, discussing the process by which new therapies are being approved by the FDA. This presentation generated a spirited discussion between clinicians, researchers, and pharma representatives on how to apply precision medicine approaches to improve drug discovery and clinical trial outcomes. This issue highlights the major topics discussed during Conference and the debates that took place among the speakers as they tried to reach a consensus regarding the utility of precision medicine in such areas as genetic screening, prognostication, and the increasing use of wearable devices to capture biometric data.

It is important to recognize that a change in our paradigm will only succeed if we can recognize the limitations inherent in our current approach and determine whether a precision medicine paradigm could effectively address these shortcomings and improve the current level of care offered to our PH patients. After all, with great power comes great responsibility.

We are grateful to the speakers and the audience who made PHA's 2018 International PH Conference and Scientific Sessions a success. Most importantly, we thank the patients for inspiring us to do better work every day.