SUMMARY
Roberto P. Benzo, M.D., M.S., is a pulmonologist who studies how mindfulness and self-management interventions for chronic conditions can improve health and well-being.
Dr. Benzo promotes teachings related to self-awareness and consciousness and how they impact the human lifestyle. He is especially interested in their benefits in the context of chronic conditions and chronic respiratory conditions, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, pulmonary fibrosis, obesity, sleep apnea, lung cancer, and post-intensive care syndrome (PICS).
Dr. Benzo also is the founding director of the Mindful Breathing Laboratory. Through his lab, Dr. Benzo offers patients videos and audio presentations, instruction on mindfulness and meditation, and a weekly live public meditation session.
Focus areas
Dr. Benzo's research is aimed at promoting mindfulness and the exploration of conscious living in all chronic conditions and living situations. The main components of Dr. Benzo's research are health coaching, meditation, and home-based rehabilitation programs informed by wearables.
- Chronic conditions. Dr. Benzo studies ways to promote health through adherence to treatment and prevention efforts, with the goal of creating a home-based telehealth platform.
- Sleep apnea and severe obesity. Dr. Benzo is creating a data-driven system for people with a combination of sleep apnea and severe obesity. The system uses remote monitoring and health coaching to create behavior changes aimed at improving health and quality of life.
- COPD. Dr. Benzo is studying methods to safely allow pulmonary rehabilitation in the home with proper monitoring and health coaching after hospitalization. Dr. Benzo also is studying ways to improve disease-specific quality of life in people with COPD who live in rural areas by increasing access to home-based pulmonary rehabilitation.
- PICS. Dr. Benzo and his Mayo Clinic colleague Rodrigo Cartin-Ceba, M.D., are studying the effects of home-based monitoring with health coaching to improve outcomes and quality of life for people with PICS.
- Fibrotic interstitial lung disease. Dr. Benzo and his Mayo Clinic colleague Teng Moua, M.D., are studying the effects of a program of home-based pulmonary rehabilitation and health coaching to improve respiratory-related quality of life and physical activity for people with interstitial lung disease.
Significance to patient care
The core of Dr. Benzo's research is to help people create a beneficial effect of conscious living and develop a lifestyle based on mindful awareness. Dr. Benzo's work can benefit anyone, not just people with a chronic condition, through the adoption of balanced, healthy lifestyles with behavior change and identification of meaning in life regardless of living situation.