Kenneth R Chapman, MSc, MD, FRCPC, FACP, FERS

Clinician Investigator, Toronto General Hospital Research Institute (TGHRI)
Keywords: asthma, respiratory illness, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)

Dr. Chapman is Director of the Asthma and Airway Centre of the University Health Network, President of the Canadian Network for Respiratory Care and Director of the Canadian Registry for Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency. A graduate of the University of Toronto and former member of the faculty at Case Western Reserve University, he is now a Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto.

Dr. Chapman is an internationally respected researcher in the field of asthma, COPD and airway diseases; his publications have appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine and the Lancet. The titles of more than 600 publications ranged from "Emergency medical services for outdoor rock music festivals" to "The effect of posutre on thoracoabdominal movements during progressive hyperoxic hypercapnia in conscious man". With more than 22,000 citations to his work, Professor Chapman is in the top 1% of cited medical researchers.

He chaired Canada's first Consensus Conference to establish Canadian guidelines for the managemtn of COPD. Professor Chapman was the inaugural holder of the CIHR-GSK Research Chair in Respiratory Health Care Delivery at the University Health Network and was one of five Canadian respiratory physicians awarded Fellowship in the European Society in its Inaugural year.
  • Asthma management strategies

    It is now a standard of care that patients with unstable asthma are given a short course of oral steroids in hospital emergency rooms, walk-in clinics and offices to allow their safe discharge home. This strategy was first examined rigorously by Dr. Chapman and his colleagues who published their pivotal study in the New England Journal of Medicine (see below). This was followed by other studies examining the optimal strategies for managing asthma.

    • Chapman KR, Verbeek, PR, White JG, Rebuck AS. Effect of a short course oral prednisone in the prevention of early relapse after the emergency room treatment of acute asthma. N Engl J Med 1991; 324: 788-794.

    • Chapman KR, Kesten S, Szalai JP. Regular versus as-needed use of inhaled salbutamol in asthma control. Lancet 1994; 1379-1382.

    • Hanania NA, Chapman KR, Sturtridge WC, Kesten S. Dose-related decrease in bone density among asthmatic patients treated with inhaled corticosteroids. J Allergy Clin Immunol 1995; 96: 571-579.

    • Chapman KR, Barnes NC, Greening AP, Jones PW, Pedersen S. Single maintenance and reliever therapy (SMART) of asthma: a critical appraisal. Thorax 2010; 65:747-752.

    • Fritscher LG, Marras TK, Bradi AC, Fritscher CC, Balter MS, Chapman KR. Non-tuberculous mycobacterial (NTM) infection as a cause of difficult-to-control asthma: a case control study. Chest 2011 Jan; 139: 23-7.

    • Chapman KR, Hinds D, Piazza P, Raherison C, Gibbs M, Greulich T, Gaalswyk K, Lin J, Adachi M, Davis K.  Physician perspectives on the burden and management of asthma in six countries: The Global Asthma Physician Survey (GAPS).  BMC Pulmonary Medicine 2017; 17:153 - 164.  DOI 10.1186/s12890-017-0492-5

    • Chapman KR, Penz E, Fitzgerald JM.  Targeted management of severe asthma: developing a Canadian approach.  Can J Respir Crit Care Sleep Med 2020; 4:(2) 124-132, DOI: 10.1080/24745332.2019.1678443

    • Chapman KR, Watz H, Singh D, Hohlfeld JM, Diamant Z, Jones I, Tillmann HC, Nikolaev I. Lung function normalisation with indacaterol acetate/glycopyrronium bromide/mometasone furoate in patients with asthma.  Clin Drug Investig 2021 May;41(5):489-492. doi: 10.1007/s40261-021-01033-6. Epub 2021 Apr 17. PMID: 33864631

  • Patient education

    Optimizing asthma treatment outcomes requires studies on patient education, compliance, and control assessment. Recognizing this, Dr. Chapman founded the Canadian Network for Respiratory Care, an organization that manages respiratory educator certification programs for Canada. He remains active on its executive.

    • Hanania NA, Wittman R, Kesten S, Chapman KR. Medical personnnel's knowledge of and ability to use inhaling devices. Chest 1994; 105: 111-116.

    • Chapman KR, Ernst P, Grenville A, Dewland P, Zimmerman S. Control of asthma in Canada: failure to achieve guideline targets. Can Respir J 2001; 35A-40A.

    • Chapman KR, Boulet LP, Rea RM, Franssen E. Sub-optimal asthma control: prevalence, detection and consequences in primary practice. Eur Respir J 2008; 31: 320-325.

    • Chapman KR, An L, Bosnic-Anticevich S, Campomanes CM, Espinosa J, Jain P, Lavoie KL, Li J, Butta AK.  Asthma patients’ and physicians’ perspectives on the burden and management of asthma.  Respir Med 2021, 106524, ISSN 0954-6111. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rmed.2021.106524. PMID: 34265629

  • Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)

    Dr. Chapman wrote Canada's first guidelines for the management of COPD and maintains a broad program of research in this area, addressing issues of diagnostic delay, epidemiology and non-invasive monitoring. He is a member of the CanCOLD consortium, a trans-Canadian program of study examining the natural history in a large population-based cohort of patients with COPD. He has addressed issues of gender bias in his work.

    • Chapman KR, Bowie D, Hodder R, Julien M, Kesten S, Newhouse M, Pare PD. Canadian Thoracic Society Concensus Statement on the assessment and management of COPD. Can Med Assoc J 1992; 147: 421-428.

    • Kesten S. Chapman KR. Physician perceptions and management of COPD. Chest 1993; 104: 254-258.

    • Chapman KR, Tashkin DP, Pye DJ. Gender bias in the diagnosis of COPD. Chest 2001; 119: 1691-1695.

    • Chapman KR, Mannino DM, Soriano JB, Vermeire PA, Buist AS, Thun MJ, Connell C, Jemal A, Lee TA, Miravitlles M, Aldington S, Beasley R. Epidemiology and costs of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Eur Respir J 2006; 27: 188-207.

    • Wedzicha JA, Banerji D, Chapman KR, Vestbo J, Roche N, Ayers RT, Thach C, Fogel R, Patalano F, Vogelmeier CF. Indacaterol/glycopyrronium versus or salmeterol/fluticasone for COPD exacerbations. N Engl J Med 2016 Jun 9; 374(23): 2222-34. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa1516385. Epub 2016 May 15 PMID:  27181606

    • Chapman KR, Hurst JR, Frent SM, Larbig M, Fogel R, Guerin T, Banerji D, Patalano F, Goyal P, Pfister P, Kostikas K, Wedzicha JA.  Long-term triple therapy de-escalation to indacaterol/glycopyrronium in COPD patients (SUNSET): a randomized, double-blind, triple-dummy clinical trial.  Am J Respir Crit Care Med 2018 198(3): 329 – 339. https://doi.org/10.1164/rccm.201803-0405OC. PubMed: 29779416

  • Alpha1 antitrypsin deficiency

    Dr. Chapman follows a large number of patients with alpha1 antitrypsin deficiency and is considered one of the world's experts in this comparatively rare lung disease. His work reflects both the Canadian perspective (from the Canadian registry) and his collaboration with international colleagues.

    • Chapman KR, Stockley RA, Dawkins C, Wilkes MM, Navickis RJ. Augmentation therapy for α1 antitrypsin deficiency: a meta-analysis. J COPD 2009; 6: 177-184.

    • Chapman KR, Burdon JGW, Piitulainen E, Sandhaus RA, Seersholm N, Stocks JM, Stoel BC, Huang L, Yao Z, Edelman J, McElvaney NG.  Intravenous augmentation therapy preserves lung density in severe alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency; the randomized, placebo-controlled RAPID trial.  Lancet 2015; 386: 360 – 368. Published online May 28, 2015. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(15)60860-1.

For a list of Dr. Chapman's publications, please visit PubMed or Scopus.
Clinician Investigator, Toronto General Hospital Research Institute (TGHRI)

Director, Asthma & Airway Centre, University Health Network
Professor of Medicine, University of Toronto