National Center for Healthcare Advancement and Partnerships
American Lung Association Partnership
Improving lung disease prevention and care for all Veterans through VA partnership with American Lung Association
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) partnered in 2020 with the American Lung Association to contribute to VA’s lung cancer treatment and prevention efforts. VA diagnoses 7,700 Veterans with lung cancer each year, and an estimated 900,000 are at risk because of age, smoking, or environmental exposures.
“We know that respiratory disorders are a significant health issue for military Veterans,” said Ms. Bev Stewart, national senior director of lung disease programs for the American Lung Association. “The Association is excited to partner with VA because we know we can utilize the expertise of VA in our initiatives and share our resources with VA.”
The Association has already benefitted, Ms. Stewart said, from VA’s long history and expertise in working to prevent Veterans’ lung conditions. The Association held monthly COVID-19 “town halls” with VA medical experts, and a VA physician will be the keynote speaker for the Association’s Lung Force Expo for health care professionals in June.
Ms. Stewart explained that the Association shares the VA desire to have Veterans recognize the early warning signs of lung disease and potential symptoms, such as chronic cough or shortness of breath, which some mistakenly attribute to old age or lack of fitness.
The Association works with health care providers to help them advise patients on tobacco cessation through its “Ask-Advise-Refer” model and training. When the Association recently evaluated how 160 VA clinicians responded to this training, 58% said they gained confidence in using this method to help Veteran patients.
The Association also recently launched its Better Breathers Network, a nationwide online patient support program that anyone can join. Through this network, Veterans and their caregivers can find information and resources about lung conditions and sign up for regular, virtual support meetings.
“Better Breathers provides a forum for Veterans to share with each other about their stories of lung disease, coping strategies, successes and failures,” said Dr. David Au, co-director of the VA Center of Innovation for Veteran-Centered & Value-Driven Care. He is one of the doctors involved with the VA-American Lung Association partnership.
“VA provides comprehensive clinical services for Veterans ranging from screening, diagnostic testing, evaluation, and state-of-the-art treatments for common to rare lung diseases,” Dr. Au continued. “The American Lung Association partnership additionally brings community engagement, which is often not part of clinical practices. People with shared experiences find comfort or connection with each other. We see this in our waiting rooms, where Veterans share not only about their lung conditions, but also their shared military service.”
Ms. Stewart said that on a personal note, she has Veterans’ interests in mind because her father was a Navy Seabee.
“When I’m reaching out to Veterans, I always think about what resources he could use,” she said. “I always try to think about how I would want people to respond to him.”
This partnership and many others are supported by the Veterans Health Administration’s National Center for Healthcare Advancement and Partnerships (HAP, formerly the Office of Community Engagement). For more information on HAP, please visit va.gov/healthpartnerships.
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Posted June 8, 2021
