CHEST: American College of Chest Physicians Annual Meeting

Our top coverage from the CHEST Annual Meeting 2023 explored various topics, including strategies to prevent air pollutant exposure and keys to achieving equity in lung cancer screenings.

Dr. Parth Rali, MD, of Temple University Hospital explained the challenges of managing patients with intermediate-risk pulmonary embolism (PE) and how risk stratification tools can help to address these challenges.

Jay Lee, MD, talks about financial toxicity in terms of the individual patient and in terms of the health system itself, especially in terms of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) recurrence.

Vast claims databases can yield valuable information about the unmet medical needs of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and severe asthma, and those insights point to areas that can be improved by engaging and educating clinicians.

Two posters presented at the CHEST Annual Meeting 2023 showed how real-world exacerbation rates in asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) dropped after patients started using a single inhaler that delivers triple therapy.

With methamphetamines continuing to inflict damage on the Western United States, panelists at the CHEST Annual Meeting 2023 shared sobering statistics and important considerations in treating patients with pulmonary hypertension associated with use of this destructive drug.

Andrew Ho, MD, talks about the importance of searching for what can be modified, such as closer transition to skilled nursing facilities, when working with patients who had pulmonary embolism (PE) and experienced readmission who had nonmodifiable factors and comorbidities.

Aparna Balasubramanian, MD, discusses the importance of measurements such as heart rate variability, but also that there’s no such thing as just 1 biomarker that will give all information for high-risk patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Amid the impacts of climate change, industrial emissions, and environmental disasters, pulmonologists and other clinicians will need to deliver actionable advice on how to reduce the risks to lung health posed by air pollution, according to panelists at the CHEST Annual Meeting 2023.

A close, updated review of data used to determine how to improve lung cancer screening rates and see who is most at risk of pulmonary complications is necessary to make progress in this area, notes Ajay Sheshadri, MD, MSCI.

Increasing lung cancer screening uptake without tailoring outreach and follow-up for underserved populations risks magnifying the existing racial and ethnic disparities in screening, so thoughtful approaches are needed to close the gaps, according to speakers at the CHEST Annual Meeting 2023.

Jeffrey Velotta, MD, FACS, attendee and presenter of CHEST Annual Meeting 2023, talks about the phenomenon of an increase in female, Asian, nonsmokers developing lung cancer, and what is being done to address this rise.

Aparna Balasubramanian, MD, assistant professor of medicine, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and attendee of the CHEST Annual Meeting 2023, talks about the necessity of challenging measurements like race-specific equations that can create harmful assumptions.

New research explores the risk factors for lung disease in firefighters who were exposed to particulate matter when responding to the attacks on the World Trade Center (WTC) on September 11, 2001, as well as interventions that may mediate inflammatory responses.

As evidenced by a debate at the CHEST Annual Meeting 2023, the pulmonology community disagrees on whether the overlap of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a distinct entity and how best to treat it.

Ajay Sheshadri, MD, discusses the advantages of attending CHEST 2023 in person and how these benefits can inspire positive change even after the conference ends.

The CHEST Annual Meeting 2023 will take place in Honolulu, Hawai‘i, from October 8-11, as pulmonologists and researchers from a multitude of specialties convene to discuss pressing topics, including the role of air pollution in lung health.

The latest updates in lung cancer screening guidelines will help address disparities in certain populations, but multiple barriers including access to programs and payer coverage remain issues.

Arianne Baldomero, MD, MS, a pulmonologist in the Veterans Health Administration, discusses findings of a study looking at chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) disease management for veterans in rural areas.

Urban areas face a concentration of various pollutants that will be exacerbated by the increasing temperatures caused by climate change, and low-income residents likely have fewer resources to withstand negative health impacts, according to Emily Brigham, MD, MHS, of the University of British Columbia.

Youths and young adults are the target demographic of sleek, colorful e-cigarette devices with flavorful nicotine.

Martin Runnström, MD, a fourth-year fellow at the Emory University School of Medicine, describes a study he presented at CHEST 2022 showing a reduced response to a 2-dose immunization series for SARS-CoV-2 among patients using biologics to treat severe asthma or atopic dermatitis.

In the Roger C. Bone Memorial Lecture in Critical Care at CHEST 2022, E. Wesley Ely, MD, MPH, of the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, highlights the need for humanism in the intensive care unit and how the COVID-19 pandemic destroyed what had been built up.

As understanding of COVID-19 evolves and more evidence on treatments emerges, making sense of it can be a challenge for physicians.

Some atopic diseases affect asthma outcomes more than others, said Basil Kahwash, MD, an assistant professor of medicine on the clinical educator track in the Department of Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, who spoke at CHEST 2022.

There are several closely watched randomized trials examining catheter-directed therapies for acute pulmonary embolism, according to Parth Rali, MD, an associate professor of thoracic medicine and surgery at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine and director of the Temple University Health System Pulmonary Embolism Response Team.

One poster found patients with uncontrolled asthma had improved outcomes after escalating to triple therapy, while the other found a substantial portion of patients adherent to a dual therapy reported not having controlled asthma.

While more research is needed, obesity does play a role in the response to viral infections as well as immunizations, said Kara Dupuy-McCauley, MD, a pulmonologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

The first 5 minutes of a patient’s visit with a doctor can help improve communication and build more trusting relationships, explained panelists during a session on lung health disparities in America at CHEST 2022.

As with many medical meetings, some of the presentations from the annual American College of Chest Physicians event will be livestreamed or on demand for later viewing, but the organizers have stressed the importance of coming together for the first time since 2019.