Kim Lori Sandler, MD, Co-Chair of the American College of Radiology® (ACR®) Lung Cancer Screening 2.0 Steering Committee, contributed this piece.
This year, the ACR and the American Cancer Society National Lung Cancer Roundtable present their third annual joint webinar series: Lung Cancer Screening 201: Accelerating Uptake of Lung Cancer Screening. During this six-part series, dozens of lung cancer screening and policy experts will discuss the challenges and opportunities unique to established screening programs, showcasing methods and metrics that centers can use to accelerate uptake and adherence. Those of us who are fortunate to be involved in the clinical implementation of screening for lung cancer are witnessing firsthand the success of low-dose CT in detecting lung cancer early. With the early detection of disease, our patients are often eligible for curative resection, with significant improvement in both morbidity and mortality when compared to late-stage diagnosis. Despite these successes, challenges remain specifically in enrollment and adherence to annual screening for lung cancer. We are eager to meet these challenges, sharing passion from clinicians, researchers, patients and advocates through these webinars.
The series kicked off in July, with the first installment focusing on improving outreach from the patient, provider, institution and policy levels. The speakers addressed opportunities to educate and engage communities, including podcasts and webinars, meeting outside of the hospital environment and hosting community events. Cherie Erkmen, MD, offered valuable insight into her organization’s Robot Days initiative, which builds community relationships by gathering local medical students to engage with real operative robots. At the provider and institution levels, Michael Gieske, MD, suggested a multidisciplinary approach and outlined an example of leadership infrastructure that attendees can apply to their institutions. Raymond U. Osarogiagbon, MBBS, FACP, emphasized the importance of setting mutually-agreed upon outreach goals and measuring success. He notes, “You can’t improve what you don’t measure.”
I look forward to hearing from Jody Steinhardt, MPH, CHES®, and Shawn Teague, MD, FNASCI, FACR, on Wednesday, Aug. 31 at noon ET, to explore patient retention. Register to attend and take action to improve care for your patients through lung cancer screening.