Insights from the touchRESPIRATORY 2025 Future Leaders

As respiratory and pulmonary medicine continues to advance, staying ahead of the curve has never been more critical. In 2025, important therapeutic approvals, major guideline updates, and progress in personalized medicine, artificial intelligence, and diagnostics reshaped how respiratory and pulmonary diseases are understood and managed. Collectively, these developments are driving meaningful improvements in patient care and opening the door to new research possibilities.

As we welcome the new year, we asked our touchRESPIRATORY 2025 Future Leaders to share the developments they believe will shape the future of the field. Here, they highlight three emerging areas poised to influence clinical practice—not only in the year ahead, but for years to come.

“Looking ahead, I am especially interested in the PARADIGM4TB trial led by Ilaria Motta (University College London). This platform trial tests multiple TB regimens and treatment durations, combining new drugs with established therapies. Its design—evaluating several regimens and novel agents simultaneously—is unprecedented, with the potential to greatly accelerate development and deliver shorter, more effective TB treatments.”

Dr Veronique Suttels, MD, PhD
Clinician-researcher, CHUV Department Of Infectious Diseases, Lausanne, Switzerland

“While the first FDA-approved treatment for bronchiectasis in 2025 marked a historic turning point, the next breakthrough will be the translation of our rapidly expanding evidence base into actionable, personalized care. With multiple Phase 3 trials underway and the forthcoming North American Bronchiectasis Treatment Guidelines, we’re poised to move beyond symptom management toward disease modification. I predict that within the next few years, we’ll have guideline-supported, personalized treatment algorithms that fundamentally alter disease progression—finally giving patients the precision medicine approach they deserve.”

Dr Shelby MacRae, MD
Assistant Professor, LSU Health Sciences Center, New Orleans, LA, USA

“Predicting the next major breakthrough in the field of respiratory medicine? It’s hard for me to say what might be the next major breakthrough but my hope is that we will be able to change the platform, the delivery method, the model for the therapies we provide in order to more easily improve access to the medications to all patients who need it. This requires innovation, systems change and policy work but I do think these efforts will easily have more impact than a single new drug.”

Dr Debasree Banerjee, MD
Associate Professor of Medicine, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA