November 07, 2024
As a clinical bedside nurse at the Temple Lung Center, Melissa Liverpool often helped patients with later-stage lung diseases deal with their symptoms. But for the past three years, she’s been involved in a groundbreaking initiative aimed at detecting lung diseases and other conditions in their early stages, when they’re easier to treat.
The initiative is called the Temple Healthy Chest Initiative, a health-system wide program designed to provide the Philadelphia and surrounding regions with access to screenings for lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), heart disease, and other chest-related conditions.
Under the guidelines, those eligible for screenings include:
• Those who are 50 to 80 years old
• Current smokers or those who have quit within the past 15 years
• People with a smoking history number of more than 20 pack years. (Pack years are the number of years smoked multiplied by the average number of packs smoked per day. For example, someone who smoked two packs a day for 10 years would have a smoking history number of 20 pack years.)
Since the program’s inception, the Temple Healthy Chest Initiative has offered low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) scans to detect lung cancer and other conditions at an earlier stage. As of October 2024, nearly 10,000 LDCT scans had been performed, with the pace of screenings steadily increasing each year.
In September 2023, the program added spirometry testing in response to guidelines issued by the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD). A spirometer test measures how much and how fast air can be inhaled and exhaled — a key indicator of lung health.
“A lot of the patients have COPD symptoms such as a cough or a little bit of shortness of breath when they’re going up a flight of stairs,” Liverpool said.
Nurses like Liverpool are what make the Healthy Chest Initiative unique not only to the Philadelphia region, but nationwide.
The Healthy Chest Initiative relies on dedicated Nurse Navigators, such as Liverpool, to guide patients throughout the screening process. These nurses call patients prior to their tests to gather information about their health and lifestyle, offering resources and support services, such as smoking cessation programs, virtual and in-person support groups, and other helpful programs.
“Even if their results are normal, we call them just to tell them that everything’s good and we ask them a few more questions to see if they qualify for annual screenings,” Liverpool said.
If the screenings reveal a potential problem, they’ll explain the findings and ask the patient if they would like to be referred to a specialist for further evaluation.
“We have a team that works with us to get new patient appointments with specialists at Temple Health,” Liverpool said.
While screenings are available to anyone who is eligible under the new federal guidelines, a vital part of the Temple Healthy Chest Initiative’s mission is to reach underserved communities.
From tailoring the messaging of outdoor advertising based on the neighborhood they’re in, to bringing translators to events like the Penn Asian Senior Services (PASSi) Autumn Festival, Temple Health is able to provide services in seven languages to ensure any cultural barriers don’t prevent access to the program’s offerings.
For Liverpool, a Philadelphia native whose father was an immigrant and whose mother was born in Puerto Rico, that’s one of many things that makes being part of the Healthy Chest Initiative so special.
“The good thing about this is that I’m educating the patients,” she said. “I think the key is to increase education and allow the patient to take control of their health — and this is one of the ways they can do that.”
If you meet the eligibility criteria, the free screenings offered by the Temple Healthy Chest Initiative are a simple and proactive step towards protecting your health. Screenings are available at any Temple University Hospital campus and at Fox Chase Cancer Center. To schedule an appointment, call 800-TEMPLE-MED (800-836-7536).
