26Sep

STRENGTH IN NUMBERS: THE RESCUE LUNG SOCIETY REGISTRY

September 26, 20240 comment

As part of our mission to reduce barriers to screening, the Rescue Lung Society (RLS) developed a registry for CT lung screening (CTLS).  The registry will provide a repository of high-quality data that organizations can use to assess the quality of their screening program and to create performance benchmarks. This data warehouse will help inform future clinical guidelines in the US and globally.

The registry is available free of charge for RLS members. We expect that institutions and jurisdictions around the world, especially those just starting to implement CTLS, will benefit from joining the registry. There is a need for a high-quality data repository. Screening centers often don’t have the resources required to calculate quality metrics such as screening volumes, rates of intervention, positive predictive values, cancer detection rates, false positive rates, smoking cessation rates, stage breakdowns, and time to diagnosis. Eventually, we expect there to be a rich database to help inform best-in-class levels of CTLS quality indicators by region and by population. The registry will also help foster collaborations across institutions, regions and jurisdictions.

  • There are several central goals of the RLS registry:
  • Provide an affordable, user-friendly mechanism for health care organizations offering CTLS services to submit patient-level data to a global CTLS registry which can be accessed in perpetuity
  • Enable participating providers and institutions to best assess the quality of care they provide by benchmarking their performance against peer facilities in real time
  • Develop quality indicator best practice thresholds by jurisdiction, region and population
  • Facilitate research that informs the development of future CTLS clinical guidelines and solutions

The registry will offer unparalleled simplicity of use by:

  • Limiting mandatory fields, with additional voluntary fields available for participating institutions and jurisdictions interested in more detailed program analytics
  • Offering registry membership at low or no cost to participating institutions and jurisdictions
  • Accommodating all CTLS structured reporting systems
  • Providing immediate access to each participant’s own data
  • Enabling multi-institutional/multi-jurisdictional/regional quality improvement and research collaborations
  • Offering out-of-the-box and customized quality reports
  • Creating the capability to accept automatic data uploads from participating institutions

If you have any questions about the RLS registry or are interested in participating, please reach out to shawn.regis@rescuelung.org. Let’s continue to improve CTLS quality together.

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26Jun

2024 Conference Registration Now Open

June 26, 20240 comment

 

The Rescue Lung Society Board is excited to open registration for the Rescue Lung Society 2024 Annual Conference on Lung Cancer Screening on Oct 25 and 26. The theme of the conference is Lung Cancer Screening Today and Tomorrow. We are going back to the beautiful Hyatt Regency Boston Harbor Hotel (Explore the Hotel) for the in-person meeting and we’ll be hosting the conference virtually for those unable to attend in person. CME will be offered for the sessions.

 

We have a stellar line-up of topics, speakers and moderators. The agenda includes speaker and panel discussions on CT lung screening in clinical practice, CT lung screening quality indicators, stigma, screening criteria and addressing disparities, research, clinical trials and studies, cancer screening biomarkers and AI, and advocacy and legislative initiatives.  We have several pro-con discussions planned and expect to have some lively discussions with the speakers and the audience.  One of these is a 3-way debate on the topic “Is there an acceptable benign resection rate?” with Brendon Stiles, Montefiore, Dan Raz, City of Hope and Mara Antonoff, MD Anderson. Andrea McKee will be presenting the second annual Brady McKee Excellence in CT Lung Screening Award.

 

We received a lot of positive feedback after last years’ conference. It convinced us to have the next conference this year instead of waiting two years as we had initially planned. Please join us in-person or virtually. We look forward to seeing you.

 

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30Sep

DELVE Study – Rescue Lung Rescue Life Society Blog Post

September 30, 20220 comment

The DElivering Lung cancer screening that supports proVidErs (DELVE) study at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) and the Department of Veterans Affairs Tennessee Valley Health System (TVHS), is actively recruiting clinicians (physicians and advanced practice providers) in Middle Tennessee to address the critical role that they play in lung cancer screening. Led by Jennifer A. Lewis MD, MS, MPH, this study is among the first to comprehensively assess behavioral factors that influence clinicians’ lung screening behaviors.

Our interdisciplinary research team includes a lung cancer patient advocate, oncologists, a radiologist, a primary care physician, and experts in public health and clinical research. The team is conducting in-depth, semi-structured interviews with clinicians in general internal medicine and several subspecialities (geriatrics, gynecology, cardiology, pulmonology, oncology). To capture a diverse sample of clinicians from hospital and community-based clinics in Middle Tennessee, the research team plans to complete over 50 interviews. An electronic pre-interview survey is sent to participants to capture data on guideline knowledge, organizational culture and general attitudes towards lung cancer screening to streamline the interview process. Based on the Capability, Opportunity, and Motivation Behavior framework, these interviews will reveal key themes regarding clinicians’ medical decision-making and ability to perform screening in clinical practice.

In-depth, semi-structured interviews allow for the exploration of clinicians’ points of view, experiences, feelings, and perspectives. The information obtained will inform the adaptation of a measurement tool for clinician engagement with an evidence-based practice, as well as future implementation strategies within both the Tennessee Valley Healthcare System and Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

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16Aug
Informative posts, discussions and stories about CT lung screening and early detection
Informative posts, discussions and stories about CT lung screening and early detection

The Time Is Now To Increase Uptake Of Ct Lung Screening And Save More Lives

August 16, 20190 comment

Lung cancer continues to be the leading cause of cancer death, taking as many lives as colon, breast and pancreatic cancer combined. In the US alone, we lose more than 140 thousand people every year, resulting in a loss of $21.3 B in lost wages in 2015 alone not to mention the cost of suffering and heartache for those diagnosed with lung cancer and their loved ones. Unfortunately, uptake of CT lung screening for the eligible high-risk population is less than 5%.

The Rescue Lung Society (RLS) is an independent 501(c)(3) organization established to eliminate barriers to CT Lung Screening (CTLS) through public/provider education, advocacy, research, and development of novel tools. The Society is focused on saving lives at-risk for lung cancer through implementing high quality CT lung screening today and pioneering early detection innovations tomorrow.

The Society was founded by an inter-professional group of clinicians and research scientists with a passion for saving lives from lung cancer through prevention and early detection.  Driven by this goal, our group conceived the standardized CTLS radiology reporting system (LungRADS), pioneered provider and community outreach for CTLS, prototyped the first commercially available dedicated CTLS program management system (Primordial Program Management System), established the first state-sponsored CTLS learning collaborative (Massachusetts), published the only commercially available CTLS reading  simulator and training tool (Mevis Lung Academy), identified novel lung cancer biomarkers, and lobbied CMS successfully to establish CLTS reimbursement . We currently provide guidance on CLTS program development and function on a daily basis at no charge to institutions throughout the United States and the world.

The RLRL Society welcomes all stakeholders involved in CT lung screening including medical professionals, people with lung cancer, and advocates free of charge. We ask that you join us and our community in saving lives by helping increase access to quality CT lung screening for everyone at high-risk regardless of their geographical location, socioeconomic status, race or ethnicity.

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