From the November 2020 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine

“Earlier detection of lung cancer ... that is the goal,” USPSTF member Dr. John B. Wong told HCB News. “The ability to detect lung cancer in earlier stages, when it’s more curable.”

More than 200,000 are diagnosed with lung cancer each year. Existing guidelines recommend that screening begin at 55 for those with 30 pack-years of smoking history. A pack year is a calculation of how much a person smokes, with one pack-year equivalent to smoking an average of 20 cigarettes, or one pack, per day for a year.


The draft is a Grade B recommendation but is based on evidence from Europe’s NELSON trial, the second largest randomized controlled trial to demonstrate a reduction in lung cancer mortality with CT screening of people at high risk, and the National Lung Cancer Screening Trial, a randomized U.S. trial conducted to determine whether screening with low-dose CT could reduce mortality from lung cancer.

The NLST trial, sponsored by the National Cancer Institute, found a 20% reduction in lung cancer mortality for annual screening over three years with low-dose CT scanning compared to chest radiography. The NELSON trial reaffirmed this finding, determining that low-dose CT screenings reduced lung cancer mortality by 24% in men and 33% in women compared to no screening. A follow-up NLST trial, also reaffirmed the results of both trials, finding a 26% reduction in lung cancer mortality in men and a 39% reduction in women.

The changes, according to Wong, would be especially helpful to African-Americans and women, who despite smoking fewer cigarettes than white men, are at higher risk of developing and dying from lung cancer.

Emory Healthcare shares tips for keeping CT exam schedules on time
Emory Healthcare in Atlanta, Georgia found, through a three-month retrospective analysis, that only 11% of its first-of-the-day CT exams were beginning on time, leading to unnecessary delays throughout the rest of the day. In July, they shared insight on their journey toward, and success with, resolving the problem.

The problem started at the very start of each day, with significant delays frequently impacting the first scheduled 8:30am outpatient case. From there, several downstream consequences would develop, including a snowball effect with delays in subsequent scheduled procedures resulting in an average delay of 71 minutes.

To address the issue, they turned to the lean and Six Sigma approach, a team method for improving performance, with the goal of standardizing their process and increasing on-time starts to more than 50% within 20 weeks.

November 2020 Magazine

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