Acute respiratory distress syndrome, respiratory syncytial virus infection, familial lung disease, and pneumocystis infection are examples of deficiencies in and issues with SP-B that are correlated with lung issues.
Because so many lung conditions are associated with issues around SP-B, synthetic replacements have been researched, created, and manufactured.  It has been shown that 21 amino acid long peptides with positive charge and intermittent hydrophobic regions mimicking SP-B can minimize surface tension at the gas/fluid interface, and surfactant replacements for surfactant deficient patients has been used to save lives.
Once lung distress has occurred, SP-B has been shown to be effective as a biomarker in the blood stream.  Higher levels of SP-B indicate some kind of lung distress, and can even indicate if the patient is currently a smoker. This may be useful in the future to predict atherosclerosis, a solidifying of vascular tissue that has negative effects on the heart.