Projects

The Mindful Breathing Laboratory at Mayo Clinic aims to improve well-being in chronic conditions through home-based rehabilitation, health coaching, self-awareness and self-management.

Our research and clinical focus areas include chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), mindfulness, emotional intelligence, motivational interviewing-based health coaching, mindful communication, positive psychology and physical activity, and how these approaches relate to health outcomes.

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)

Learn about a study using health coaching to reduce COPD hospitalizations.

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Ongoing research projects

  • A Home-Based Intervention to Promote Mindful Breathing Awareness Through Pursed-Lip Breathing Training for COPD Patients. This project is testing a system that includes a dedicated, mindful breathing practice in an existing home pulmonary rehabilitation program with health coaching.
  • A Lifestyle Program for Comorbid Obstructive Sleep Apnea with Severe Obesity. This study aims to develop a data-driven system for people with severe obesity sleep apnea that uses remote monitoring with health coaching to create behavior changes to improve health and quality of life.
  • Home-Based Rehabilitation for COPD. This project is testing a system that safely allows pulmonary rehabilitation in a person's home with proper monitoring, feedback and health coaching.
  • Increasing Adherence to Pulmonary Rehabilitation After COPD-Related Hospitalizations. This project is testing a system that safely allows pulmonary rehabilitation in a person's home with proper monitoring with health coaching after a hospitalization.
  • Mechanistic Effects of Health Coaching to Reduce COPD Hospitalizations. This project is through a Midcareer Investigator Award in Patient-Oriented Research for Roberto P. Benzo, M.D. The award provides dedicated mentoring to promising researchers interested in behavioral intervention in chronic lung disease and expands their research programs. Dr. Benzo's proposed research in this project would broaden knowledge about the effects of an intervention tested in a randomized study that decreased hospitalization in chronic obstructive lung disease. The randomized study is funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.
  • Pretransplant Health Coaching to Improve Patient-Reported Outcomes in Lung Transplant Candidates. This project focuses on promoting self-management abilities through health coaching in the pretransplant period.
  • Individualizing Steroid Use in Pneumonia. In this study, our team is investigating a unique, individualized approach to steroid treatment, with the goal of giving the right dose of steroid to the right person at the right time. This study seeks to compare usual care to an individualized steroid-dosing strategy by testing a marker of inflammation in the blood called C- reactive protein (CRP). The overall goal is to reduce the exposure to steroids and the risk of potential side effects, thereby increasing the potential benefit of using steroids to control inflammation in pneumonia.
  • An Adaptable Platform to Promote Patient Health Through Adherence to Treatment and Prevention. This project is creating a telehealth platform for people with chronic conditions.
  • Pilot Clinical Trial of a Home-Based Program of Rehabilitation with Health Coaching to Improve Outcomes in Post-Intensive Care Syndrome Patients. The purpose of this project is to study the effects of a home-based rehabilitation program on the quality of life of people with this syndrome.
  • Home-Based Pulmonary Rehabilitation and Health Coaching in Fibrotic Interstitial Lung Disease. This project is studying the effects of a home-based rehabilitation program on the quality of life of people with fibrotic interstitial lung disease.

Upcoming projects

  • Enabling Independent Living by Expanding Access to Home-Based Pulmonary Rehabilitation. This study aims to test an existing home-based pulmonary rehabilitation program with the addition of video chat and the capability of a Spanish version.
  • The Impact of Underlying Behavioral Mechanisms On a Home-Based Pulmonary Rehabilitation Program. This project aims to study the behavioral mechanisms of daily physical activity in people with COPD.
  • Physical Rehabilitation to Improve Outcomes Post-Sleeve Gastrectomy in Patients with Obesity and End Stage Renal Disease.
  • Home-Based Pulmonary Rehabilitation with Health Coaching to Improve Respiratory-Related Quality of Life and Physical Activity in Patients with Fibrotic Interstitial Lung Disease.