Edward Diamond

An Official American Thoracic Society/American College of Chest Physicians Policy statement: The choosing wisely top five list in adult pulmonary medicine

The American Board of Internal Medicine Foundations Choosing Wisely campaign aims to curb health-care costs and improve patient care by soliciting lists from medical societies of the top five tests or treatments in their specialty that are used too frequently and inappropriately. The American Thoracic Society (ATS) and American College of Chest Physicians created a joint task force, which produced a top five list for adult pulmonary medicine. Our top five recommendations, which were approved by the executive committees of the ATS and American College of Chest Physicians and published by Choosing Wisely in October 2013, are as follows: (1) Do not perform CT scan surveillance for evaluation of indeterminate pulmonary nodules at more frequent intervals or for a longer period of time than recommended by established guidelines; (2) do not routinely offer pharmacologic treatment with advanced vasoactive agents approved only for the management of pulmonary arterial hypertension to patients with pulmonary hypertension resulting from left heart disease or hypoxemic lung diseases (groups II or III pulmonary hypertension); (3) for patients recently discharged on supplemental home oxygen following hospitalization for an acute illness, do not renew the prescription without assessing the patient for ongoing hypoxemia; (4) do not perform chest CT angiography to evaluate for possible pulmonary embolism in patients with a low clinical probability and negative results of a highly sensitive D-dimer assay; (5) do not perform CT scan screening for lung cancer among patients at low risk for lung cancer. We hope pulmonologists will use these recommendations to stimulate frank discussions with patients about when these tests and treatments are indicated--and when they are not.

Electronic medical records: a practitioner's perspective on evaluation and implementation.

This article describes the initial and ongoing efforts of our pulmonary medicine practice to deploy an electronic medical records (EMR) system. Key factors in the vendor selection and implementation process included (1) identification and commitment to long-term goals for EMR; (2) dedicated resources, including both physician and nonphysician champions to lead the design and implementation teams; and (3) ample patience and time allotted to achieve the desired results: a fully functional system that enhances quality, improves operational efficiency, and reduces costs. An EMR scorecard including multiple system attributes was designed to facilitate vendor comparisons. Perseverance, patience, and compromise were necessary to overcome the challenge of changing the behavior of providers and support staff. We have accomplished improvements in workflow automation and reductions in staff hours, office supplies, file space, and transcription costs. Our system lacks pulmonary-specific templates and prompts for work flow and clinical decision making. We have directed internal resources and outsourced professional support to design these features as our practice strives to enhance our quality of care with pulmonary disease management that conforms to national guidelines.

Capturing Structured, Pulmonary Disease-Specific Data Elements in Electronic Health Records

Electronic health records (EHRs) have the potential to improve health-care quality by allowing providers to make better decisions at the point of care based on electronically aggregated data and by facilitating clinical research. These goals are easier to achieve when key, disease-specific clinical information is documented as structured data elements (SDEs) that computers can understand and process, rather than as free-text/natural-language narrative. This article reviews the benefits of capturing disease-specific SDEs. It highlights several design and implementation considerations, including the impact on efficiency and expressivity of clinical documentation and the importance of adhering to data standards when available. Pulmonary disease-specific examples of collection instruments are provided from two commonly used commercial EHRs. Future developments that can leverage SDEs to improve clinical quality and research are discussed.

Developing an Interventional Pulmonary Service in a Community-Based Private Practice: A Case Study

Interventional pulmonology (IP) is a field that uses minimally invasive techniques to diagnose, treat, and palliate advanced lung disease. Technology, formal training, and reimbursement for IP procedures have been slow to catch up with other interventional subspecialty areas. A byproduct of this pattern has been limited IP integration in private practice settings. We describe the key aspects and programmatic challenges of building an IP program in a community-based setting. A philosophical and financial buy-in by stakeholders and a regionalization of services, within and external to a larger practice, are crucial to success. Our experience demonstrates that a successful launch of an IP program increases overall visits as well as procedural volume without cannibalizing existing practice volume. We hope this might encourage others to provide this valuable service to their own communities.

Value-Based Proposition for a Dedicated Interventional Pulmonology Suite: An Adaptable Business Model

&NA; Value‐based care is evolving with a focus on improving efficiency, reducing cost, and enhancing the patient experience. Interventional pulmonology has the opportunity to lead an effective value‐based care model. This model is supported by the relatively low cost of pulmonary procedures and has the potential to improve efficiencies in thoracic care. We discuss key strategies to evaluate and improve efficiency in interventional pulmonology practice and describe our experience in developing an interventional pulmonology suite. Such a model can be adapted to other specialty areas and may encourage a more coordinated approach to specialty care.