Dr. Barst's Children's Pulmonary Hypertension Center is the only pediatric facility of this sort in the world, and her clinical practice involves the world's largest caseload of pediatric PPH patients. Dr. Barst's landmark 1996 article in the New England Journal of Medicine, "A Comparison of Continuous Intravenous Epoprostenol (Prostacyclin) with Conventional Therapy in Primary Pulmonary Hypertension" reported on the scientific results of the clinical trial that led to FDA approval of Glaxo-Wellcome's Flolan as the first therapeutic agent approved for PPH.

The Foundation has made a proposal to the American Thoracic Society for a Foundation-funded permanent award to two researchers each year at the Society's annual meeting. The purpose of the Foundation's recognition awards is to compensate for the fact that because PPH is a rare disease, researchers working on it do not receive as much support as their colleagues working on more prevalent diseases. The Foundation hopes that its awards program will bring PPH research to the attention of more investigators, and will thereby attract more scientists to the field and enhance the momentum toward a cure. The Foundation has budgeted $36,000 for its Scientific Progress Awards in 1997.