Pulmonary Fibrosis: Your Lung Function Tests and Scans as Research Data

Every figure in this guide comes from a published source, linked where it appears and kept in CureCircle's evidence base with the source's own words. It is not medical advice. Read on 7 November 2026.

Pulmonary fibrosis is followed through numbers: how much air the lungs hold, how well they pass oxygen into the blood, how far the person can walk. The rate at which those numbers fall says most about what lies ahead, and newer medicines aim to slow it. Research on which treatments slow it for whom needs those long series of tests, joined to the person's own account of breathlessness, cough and daily life.

How many people live with it

A 2025 meta-analysis found a pooled global prevalence of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis of 17.7 per 100,000 and 5.8 new cases per 100,000 a year. Counting all interstitial lung diseases together with pulmonary sarcoidosis, the Global Burden of Disease study found about 4.3 million people in 2021.

The records worth keeping

NICE's guideline on idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis describes the tests that leave records:

• A high-resolution CT scan of the chest for everyone with suspected idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
• Lung function tests (spirometry and gas transfer) at diagnosis and 6 months and 12 months after diagnosis, to measure how fast things change.
• A biopsy in some cases, when the team cannot make a confident diagnosis.
• Specialist follow-up every 3 months, every 6 months or annually, depending on how quickly the disease moves.

Oxygen readings from a home monitor and steps from a phone or watch show the day-to-day picture. If you do not have your results, ask your respiratory clinic for a copy.

What sharing it is worth

CureCircle values every contribution with a public benchmark built from what health data has sold for. A complete pulmonary fibrosis story with the records the guideline lists comes to about $115 per licence on the benchmark today, and about $225 per licence with 90 days of activity data from a wearable. Every line and its source is on the pulmonary fibrosis page.

A licence is not a one-off sale: the same de-identified story can be licensed to several research teams, and you earn a share each time.

For carers

Many people with pulmonary fibrosis are supported by a partner or an adult child. You can share the story of someone you care for, with their permission; the record then notes that a carer told it.

Start your story, or read what your health data is worth first.