Multidisciplinary teams improve diagnoses in ILD
FROM CHEST
“We believe MDD should be a common practice in the diagnosis of every patient with suspected ILD,” the researchers said.
The study doesn’t examine the challenges of putting MDD into practice, but Dr. Antin-Ozerkis provided some perspective. “It may be difficult for physicians to take the time from a busy practice to meet with a multidisciplinary team. It can require resources to gather the data necessary to comprehensively assess each patient case. Additionally, maintaining staff with experienced pulmonologists, radiologists and pathologists may be costly.”
She added that “there are various ways in which MDD may occur,” and that the pros and cons of different methods have not been well studied. “This practice will likely evolve with the development of new biomarkers and other diagnostic strategies in IPF [idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis].”
Still, she said, “this joint undertaking is clearly vital in helping to guide clinical practice, including therapeutic decisions and discussion of prognosis. For now, any discussion between clinician, radiologist, and pathologist is of benefit.”
Research Foundation-Flanders and University Hospitals Leuven funded the study. Some study authors reported various disclosures. Dr. Antin-Ozerkis disclosed serving as an investigator on several clinical trials for IPF and other ILDs by Boehringer, Promedior, Fibrogen and Roche. She noted that payments go directly to the university with no direct payments to the investigator.
SOURCE: De Sadeleer LJ et al. Chest. 2018 Mar 30. doi: 10.1016/j.chest.2018.03.026.
