Q&A: Improving ILD diagnosis times through physician education

Key takeaways:

• A CHEST project hopes to educate health care workers on best practices in interstitial lung disease diagnosis.
• This project draws attention to how health inequities impact diagnosis.

Increasing health care worker awareness of interstitial lung diseases can have a major impact on the timing of this diagnosis and receipt of treatment for suffering patients.

With this idea in mind, CHEST developed, “‘How We Do It’: CHEST Experts Weigh In.” According to a press release, this project — funded by the Council of Medical Specialty Societies (CMSS) — consists of several activities designed to educate physicians on best practices in ILD diagnosis.

Notably, this project adds on to another CHEST initiative, “Bridging Specialties: Timely Diagnosis for ILD,” demonstrating how critical early diagnosis is for patients with a condition that falls under ILD.

To learn more about the project and what it hopes to accomplish, Healio spoke with Julie Morisset, MD, of the pulmonary division at Centre Hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal, and Rich Schuch, EdD, chief learning officer and senior vice president of education for the American College of Chest Physicians.

Healio: How can an early diagnosis of ILD benefit patients? What should clinicians keep in mind when considering/suspecting ILD?

Morisset: Early diagnosis of ILD allows prompt treatment initiation. When ILD is suspected, clinicians should order a high-resolution CT of the lungs and refer to pulmonary medicine for complete evaluation.

Healio: The press release said the project will help physicians “recognize health inequities that may assist in the diagnosis of ILD.” Could you describe the most influential inequities, and how they impact diagnosis?

Morisset: There are inequities associated with race, sex, rural populations and veterans. These inequities often manifest as delayed diagnosis and/or lower proportion of patients being prescribed ILD treatment, such as antifibrotics.

Healio: In what ways does the “How We Do It: CHEST Experts Weigh In” project hope to change common practices related to ILD, and what can health care workers expect from this project?

Morisset: This project hopes to increase awareness of new advances in the field of ILD. This series of activities will highlight review articles on a variety of topics from diagnosis to management of ILD.

Healio: How does the project differ from CHEST’s Bridging Specialties: Timely Diagnosis to ILD initiative?

Rich Schuch

Schuch: CHEST’s aim is to address the entire lifecycle of ILD diagnosis and treatment.

Bridging Specialties targets early diagnosis starting with PCPs, community pulmonologists and anyone else who is first seeing the patient. The CMSS grant project focuses on current clinical practice guidelines for ILDs to support diagnostic and treatment excellence.

Healio: What does the project hope to accomplish?

Schuch: The “‘How We Do It’: CHEST Experts Weigh In” project will offer clinicians a series of CME materials and activities on how to implement ILD guidelines.

At the end of the program, clinicians should be able to:

• define symptoms and patient profiles associated with ILD;
• recognize health inequities that may assist in the diagnosis of ILD;
• identify the appropriate tests that may help validate a suspicion of ILD; and
• coordinate next steps in the process including how to document and when and where to refer.

Healio: How will CHEST reach out to the more than 100,000 workers described in the press release?

Schuch: The primary mode of distribution will be through the journal CHEST, which reaches 1.6 million readers annually. “How I Do It” articles are already well-established in the journal and, on average, these articles receive 2,500 downloads per publication.

Beyond publishing the articles in the journal CHEST, the organization will run promotional efforts targeted to all members of the care team practicing pulmonary medicine including physicians, nurse practitioners, physicians’ assistants and others.
CHEST’s publishing partner, Elsevier.

Reference:

• The Council of Medical Specialty Societies awards CHEST a $100,000 grant to improve diagnostic excellence in ILD. https://www.chestnet.org/Newsroom/Press-Releases/2023/12/CMSS-awards-CHEST-a-grant-to-improve-diagnostic-excellence-in-ILD. Published Dec. 13, 2023. Accessed Jan. 3, 2024.