Rupal Shah, MD, associate professor at the University of California San Francisco, talks about how the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic created an opportunity for patients who have undergone a lung transplant to undergo spirometry testing at home instead of at the the hospital.
The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic generated an opportunity for patients who underwent a lung transplant to use spirometry testing at home instead of in the hospital, says Rupal Shah, MD, associate professor at the University of California San Francisco.
Transcript
Why did you study this topic?
For a long time in lung transplant, we have thought about how to best monitor our patients’ lung function. The way that we monitor how well the transplant is working is with spirometry, which is a test of how well your lungs can take air in and blow it out. Historically, we've had people come to the hospital every 3 months and do the tests in the lab and interpret those results. But it would be much easier if patients, especially those who live far away, could do that at home and could do it more frequently than once every 3 months. So, that was the idea behind trying to get something that we could use at home or remote monitoring.
Obviously, the onset of the pandemic really accelerated that. We were no longer allowed to have people come in for a long time, and then subsequently, everyone needed a COVID-19 test and access was much more limited. Although the concept of remote monitoring existed before the pandemic, I think the onset of the pandemic accelerated the idea of trying to rapidly implement this technology and then study how effective it is and what were the challenges to using it in our population.
ATS 2024: Bridging the Past, Present, and Future of Respiratory Care
May 16th 2024The application of artificial intelligence in medicine is anticipated as a highlight of ATS 2024, with sessions exploring its applications in research, radiological interpretation, and pediatric pulmonology.
Read More
Frameworks for Advancing Health Equity: Urban Health Outreach
May 9th 2024In the series debut episode of "Frameworks for Advancing Health Equity," Mary Sligh, CRNP, and Chelsea Chappars, of Allegheny Health Network, explain how the Urban Health Outreach program aims to improve health equity for individuals experiencing homelessness.
Listen
Tackling Health Inequality: The Power of Education and Experience
April 30th 2024To help celebrate and recognize National Minority Health Month, we are bringing you a special month-long podcast series with our Strategic Alliance Partner, UPMC Health Plan. Welcome to our final episode of this limited series and our conversation with Janine Jelks-Seale, MSPPM, director of health equity at UPMC Health Plan.
Listen
A new study highlights significant disparity in reimbursement rates across states between hospitals and Medicare; the first patient to receive a genetically modified pig kidney has died; research examines outcomes of over 500 patients receiving medication abortion pills by mail.
Read More