Lehigh County Health & Medicine Spring 2020 - 12

FEATURE

WHO
SHOULD
GET A
LOW-DOSE
CT SCAN?
The U.S. Preventive Services
Task Force recommends
annual lung cancer
screening if:
Here are actions that have made a difference
across the country:
* Start a lung cancer screening program:
hire a manger with buy-in from hospital
administrators.
* I ntegrate smoking cessation education with
screenings.
* Reach out to high-risk patients pro-actively
through their PCPs.
* Engage in relationship building with referring
physicians on a regular basis.
* Acquire or designate convenient screening
locations within the hospital network (also
a space where the radiologist can meet with
patients to discuss findings).
* Have scans read centrally by subspecialty-trained radiologists.

* Discuss suspicious findings with a multidisciplinary group (radiology, thoracic
surgery, thoracic pathology, interventional
pulmonology, respiratory medicine, nuclear
medicine, oncology, radiation therapy).
* Market LDCT within the hospital system
and the community.
* Balance the cost of the screening with
insurance reimbursement so that the cost
to the patient is not overwhelming.
* Utilize a navigator to ensure proper order
authorization and sign-off, schedule follow-up appointments, reach out to patients
by phone, and report back to patients'
referring physicians.

* You are 55 to 80 years old.
* And you have a smoking history of at
least 30 pack years.
* And you still smoke, or you quit
within the last 15 years.
* And you are in good health overall.
(Having a serious health problem
might mean that you couldn't have
treatment for lung cancer. The treatment could be too high-risk, and it
might not help you live longer.)

* Meet with medical practices that include
heavy smokers on their patient panels.
* Promote education of both ordering physicians and patients, such as "Saved by the Scan"
quiz from the American Lung Association.

*https://www.lung.org/assets/documents/research/ALA-SOLC-2019-Key-Findings.pdf
** Oken MM, Hocking WG, Kvale PA. Screening by chest radiograph and lung cancer mortality: the prostate, lung, colorectal and ovarian (PLCO) randomized trial. JAMA.
2011;306:1865-73. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/1104579
*** https://www.acr.org/-/media/ACR/Files/Case-Studies/In-Practice/Nov-2019_IM3_Pub.pdf?la=en
**** https://www.countyhealthrankings.org/app/pennsylvania/2015/measure/factors/9/map
12 Lehigh County Health & Medicine | SPRING 2020

https://www.lung.org/assets/documents/research/ALA-SOLC-2019-Key-Findings.pdf https://www.jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/1104579 https://www.acr.org/-/media/ACR/Files/Case-Studies/In-Practice/Nov-2019_IM3_Pub.pdf?la=en https://www.countyhealthrankings.org/app/pennsylvania/2015/measure/factors/9/map

Lehigh County Health & Medicine Spring 2020

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