Gerard J. Criner MD

Gerard J. Criner, MD, is Professor and Founding Chair, Department of Thoracic Medicine and Surgery at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University in Philadelphia, PA, where he also obtained his medical degree in 1979. Dr. Criner completed his internship, residency and chief residency in internal medicine at Temple University Hospital, and his fellowship in pulmonary and critical care medicine at Boston University School of Medicine in Boston, MA. Dr. Criner serves on the Board of Directors and Science Committee for the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) and is the current Vice Chairman of the GOLD Board of Directors. In 2013, Dr. Criner was the recipient of the Paul W. Eberman Faculty Research Award from Temple University, the Honored Professor Award from Temple University in 2015, the Distinguished Medical Research Award from Philadelphia Business Journal in 2016, CHEST distinguished Educator Award in 2017 and presented the Tom Petty Honor Lecture in COPD at the Chest International Scientific Meeting 2017.

As a principal investigator, Dr. Criner has received extensive research funding and has conducted multiple clinical trials in emphysema, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and ILD.

His primary research focuses on patients with advanced COPD, including exacerbations, emphysema, chronic bronchitis, lung reduction surgery and bronchoscopic lung reduction, and respiratory failure. Dr. Criner has conducted, designed and led multicenter trials in COPD for over the past 25 years. He was the overall study PI for Simvastatin for the Prevention of COPD Exacerbations (STATCOPE), an international clinical trial (US and Canada) with over 44 clinical sites. He was responsible for the study concept, design, creation of study time points and interventions and led the closure of the study with involvement in data collection, data analysis, quality control and reporting of trial results. He has been the top enroller or one of the top enrolling sites in multiple sentinel COPD clinical trials over the past 25 years that include: the National Emphysema Treatment Trial, the NHLBI COPD Clinical Research Networks MACRO, Leuko, and Prevnar studies, Prostaglandins in Emphysema (PIE), Broccoli Sprouts Extract Trial (BEST) in COPD and COPD Gene. He was the top enrolling PI in the NHLBI Long-Term Oxygen Treatment Trial (LOTT). For LOTT, he developed a 14-center satellite network that recruited 139 subjects at Temple (18.8%) out of the 737 total patients recruited into the trial. He has been a member of the steering committees of all of the above studies and has chaired the ancillary studies and publication committees of LOTT and the recruitment committee of NETT. He has been involved in multiple NIH steering committees, ad hoc technical panels, and COPD work groups over the past 25 years. He has also developed several multicenter trials with industry that includes the use of lung coils (PneumRX), tissue glue (AERIS) and endobronchial valves to reduce hyperinflation in emphysema (LIBERATE, Pulmonx). He is the international overall study PI for GALATHEA, the use of an IL-5 alpha agonist to prevent COPD exacerbations (Astra Zeneca). He developed the following multicenter protocols and serves as overall PI, EMPACT-COPD (Evaluation of the Impact of Patient Self-knowledge of Inhaler Use and Daily Symptom Collection on Health Outcomes in COPD) and the Multicenter Phase 2a Study to Assess Safety, Daily Respiratory Symptoms, Pharmacokinetics, and Biomarker Variations after Administration of either YPL-001, or Placebo in Patients with Moderate-to-Severe COPD. 

Dr. Criner has published over 450 scientific papers, reviews, and book chapters, with multiple research articles in peer-reviewed journals including New England Journal of Medicine, American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine (AJRCCM), Chest and Lancet Respiratory Medicine. He serves as Associate Editor for AJRCCM and Thorax.

Dr. Criner has lectured nationally and internationally at numerous scientific meetings and congresses.

Dr. Criner was one of the prime authors of the GOLD COPD 2017 and 2018 Reports for the GOLD scientific committee on guidelines for care of the COPD patient and also served on the guidelines committees for the ATS and ERS on research questions for COPD, prevention of COPD exacerbations and served as Chairman for the CHEST/CTS guidelines on the prevention of acute exacerbations in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Dr. Criner was the chair of the Clinical Problems (CP) program committee of the ATS, the Chair of the CP assembly and is currently a member on the ATS Foundation Board.