TY - JOUR T1 - Minimal clinically important difference in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis JF - Breathe JO - Breathe DO - 10.1183/20734735.0345-2020 VL - 17 IS - 2 SP - 200345 AU - Mohleen Kang AU - Lucian Marts AU - Jordan A. Kempker AU - Srihari Veeraraghavan Y1 - 2021/06/01 UR - http://breathe.ersjournals.com/content/17/2/200345.abstract N2 - Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a chronic, progressive fibrosing lung disease with an estimated median survival of 2–5 years and a significant impact on quality of life (QoL). Current approved medications, pirfenidone and nintedanib, have shown a reduction in annual decline of forced vital capacity but no impact on QoL. The minimal clinically important difference (MCID) is a threshold value for a change in a parameter that is considered meaningful by the patient rather than solely relying on statistically significant change in the parameter. This review provides a brief overview of the MCID methodology along with detailed discussion of reported MCID values for commonly used physiological measures and patient-reported outcome measures in IPF. While there is no gold standard methodology for determining MCID, there are certain limitations in the MCID literature in IPF, mainly the choice of death, hospitalisation and pulmonary function tests as sole anchors, and pervasive use of distribution-based methods which do not take into account the patient's input. There is a critical need to identify accurate thresholds of outcome measures that reflect patient's QoL over time in order to more precisely design and evaluate future clinical trials and to develop algorithms for patient-oriented management of IPF in outpatient clinics.Educational aimsTo understand the concept of MCID and the methods used to determine these values.To understand the indications and limitations of MCID values in IPF.Minimal clinically important difference (MCID) values for common physiological and patient-reported outcome measures have been estimated in IPF, but have limitations. MCID research can help advance patient-oriented management of IPF. https://bit.ly/314Q5iH ER -