The strength of FIRH continues to be its focus on improving patient outcomes accomplished by improved diagnostic acumen, patient monitoring and understanding of the pathobiology of pulmonary diseases resulting in better treatment.

The Firestone Institute provides comprehensive outpatient and inpatient respiratory care as the regional respiratory service for the City of Hamilton and the Hamilton Niagara Haldimand Brant Local Health Integrated Network (LHIN).

Research within the FIRH is wide-ranging, not only from bench to bedside, but to population health and policy; extending from studies of smooth muscle physiology and intracellular signalling through experimental disease models to clinical trials to enhance patient quality-of-life.

FIRH is particularly known in the field of asthma biomarkers including: measures of BHR, sputum inflammatory cells, reactivity testing and allergen challenge as diagnostic tools and as experimental medicine approaches to understand disease mechanisms, therapeutic responses to interventions and natural history of different airway disease phenotypes.

FIRH faculty have been actively engaged in education activities at the undergraduate, graduate, post-graduate and continuing medical education levels.

Since 2003, FIRH faculty has supervised 17 Master’s and 13 Ph.D. students.  In addition 3 new graduate courses have been designed and are administered by members of the FIRH.

Also in the past 5 years, FIRH faculty have trained 16 Postdoctoral Fellows, 6 Resident Researchers, and 1 Clinical Scholar.  

FIRH is also the home for the Respirology Residency Training Program.

The purpose of the Firestone Institute for Respiratory Health (FIRH) is to conduct research to increase understanding of respiratory health and disease across the life cycle through collaborative basic and clinical investigations with the expectation of improving patient care.

FIRH research faculty train young investigators to become independent researchers, encourage partnerships across disciplines nationally and internationally, and create synergies with the public and private sectors.

• Dr. Michael Newhouse received the 2010 Charles G. Thiel Award from the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Pharmacy‟s Department of Pharmaceutics for his pioneering contributions to pulmonary medicine, respiratory physiology and inhalation delivery.

• Dr. Mark Inman, FIRH Scientific Officer, has been promoted to "Professor", Department of Medicine, McMaster University, as of July 1 2010

• Welcome to Dr. Marcel Tunks who has joined the clinical team at St. Joseph's Healthcare and the FIRH respirology group.

• Dr. David Higgins, a clinical respirologist at FIRH, has been appointed as the President of St. Jospeh's Healthcare Hamilton.

• Dr. Stewart Pugsley, who received the Mission Legacy Award at St. Joseph's Healthcare and the Sister Joan O'Sullivan Award aslo at St. Joseph's Healthcare, has been appointed as the Clinical Director.

• Myrna Dolovich received a Career Achievement Award from the International Society for Aerosols in Medicine in recognition of her lifetime contributuions advancing the field of aerosols in medicine.

• Sadly, in January 2009, FIRH lost one of its greatest advocates when Morgan Firestone, for whom the Firestone Institute is named, died after a lengthy illness. The development of the institute into a world-renowned academic centre would not have been possible without the philanthropic activities of Mr. Firestone.