Interstitial Lung Disease Center of Excellence

Interstitial Lung Disease (ILD) is a group of more than 200 lung conditions that cause your lung tissue between the tiny air sacs (alveoli) to thicken and develop scar tissue. ILD makes your lungs stiff and less flexible, which makes breathing difficult and keeps oxygen from reaching your bloodstream properly.

Collaborative ILD treatment

Our dedicated center provides comprehensive care for a wide range of lung diseases that cause scarring and thickening of lung tissue. Because many ILD cases are autoimmune-related and affect multiple organs, our coordinated treatment approach combines pulmonology and rheumatology.

Both of these specialists work together at the same appointment to provide "shoulder-to-shoulder" care, sharing their expertise to create the best possible ILD treatment plan. Our pulmonologist focuses on the respiratory aspects of your ILD, while our rheumatologist addresses the issues related to any underlying autoimmune conditions that may happen.

This comprehensive care approach:

Treats your ILD faster and more accurately: With multiple specialists on your case, we can quickly determine the right therapy and adjust treatment as needed based on how things are progressing.
Lowers your stress: Our model eliminates the back-and-forth between specialty providers and long waits for treatment decisions.
Provides specialized expertise: Our specialists see many ILD cases, from common to rare, giving them valuable experience in treating a wide range of conditions.

While some ILDs may first appear to be straightforward, our integrated care model helps us respond quickly and effectively as your illness changes and becomes more complex. It also allows us to more easily manage simpler ILDs and avoid treatment delays you may experience when seeing multiple specialists separately.

Our goal is to provide you with the best possible individualized treatment plan that significantly improves your quality of life and long-term outcomes. If needed, we can seamlessly refer you to additional specialists outside of our team at any time during your treatment.

Appointments

Interstitial Lung Disease Center

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Diagnosing and treating Interstitial Lung Disease (ILD)

Because ILDs are complex and often affect multiple organ systems, coming to a diagnosis requires several procedures. This process is usually led by a pulmonologist who collaborates with other specialists depending on the type of ILD.

To diagnose an ILD, your care team may recommend the following:

Physical exam: A pulmonologist will look at your full medical history, current symptoms like cough and shortness of breath, and perform a physical exam.
Pulmonary function tests: These tests measure your lung function and find out how severe your impairment is.
High-resolution computed tomography scan: This advanced imaging test provides detailed images of your lungs to identify the type and extent of your disease.
Blood tests: These tests look at inflammatory markers and autoantibodies to see how your immune system is involved in your symptoms.
Bronchoscopy: This procedure looks at your airways with a small camera on the end of a flexible tube. This helps doctors look at and take pictures of your air passages.
Open lung biopsy: This is a more invasive procedure that is only used if other methods have not provided enough information for an ILD diagnosis.

ILDs we treat

We can treat a wide range of ILDs, from those that initially seem less complex to those requiring coordinated treatment between pulmonology and rheumatology. This includes:

Mild idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis
Hypersensitivity pneumonitis
Certain organizing pneumonias
Rheumatoid arthritis-associated ILD
Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE)-associated ILD
Scleroderma-associated ILD
ILD associated with connective tissue disorders like mixed connective tissue disease, polymyositis, and dermatomyositis
Sarcoidosis
Coal worker's pneumoconiosis
Asbestosis

Even when ILDs appear less complex and like they may primarily benefit from pulmonologist care, our team provides comprehensive ongoing care that can address evolving or newly discovered issues.

Learn more about autoimmune lung diseases and how they're treated.

How to refer your patient to the AHN Autoimmunity Institute for ILD treatment

If you are not associated with AHN and would like to refer your patient to an AHN Autoimmunity Institute specialist and request their first appointment, you can do so by:

Calling the ILD Clinic Program Coordinator at (833) 242-8246.
Finding the AHN specialist you're looking for and submitting an online patient referral from the doctor's profile on AHN Find Care.
Calling the AHN Physician Access Center at (844) MD-REFER (844) 637-3337 to verify the specialist's availability and complete a referral.

If you have any questions about independent physician referral, see answers to our frequently asked questions.

After referring your patient

Once your patient is receiving care from an AHN specialist, you can view their test results, see their treatment plan, follow their treatment progress, and collaborate with our team using the EpicCare^® Link™ platform.

If you are new to EpicCare Link or are having trouble accessing your account, you can request a new account or get answers about an active account.

Releasing medical records to EpicCare Link

If you can't access your patient's AHN test results through the EpicCare Link platform, your patient will need to complete and submit the correct AHN Medical Records Release form based on their state of residency. You can download and print this form for your patients. Use the following medical records release forms for:

EpicCare® is a registered trademark of Epic Systems Corporation and used with permission.

EpicCare® Link™ is a trademark of Epic Systems Corporation and used with permission.

AHN Autoimmunity Institute: Interstitial Lung Disease Center

Learn more about our appointment options, get a second opinion, and find additional support resources for interstitial lung disease.

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