VA TelePulmonology: Dedicated to Veterans’ lung health

According to the National Institutes of Health, nearly 16 million people in the U.S. have COPD, also known as emphysema or chronic bronchitis, and it’s more than twice as common in rural areas.

VA’s Office of Connected Care shares information about VA’s advances in telehealth that are dedicated to caring for Veterans’ lungs. VA pulmonologists, respiratory therapists and other lung health professionals across the nation are using telehealth—TelePulmonology and TeleSpirometry—to assist in delivering care.

At VA, TelePulmonology care for Veterans with COPD and other chronic lung conditions can be:

• A VA Video Connect visit at home to help Veterans access their pulmonary clinicians, learn inhaler technique, or set up and troubleshoot equipment
• Home telehealth equipment that remotely monitors blood oxygen and other vitals for Veterans who have a chronic lung condition
• A tele-ICU room with a video link and technology monitoring equipment that lets a VA pulmonologist, usually located many miles away, assist the local critical care team
• A clinic-based pulmonary (lung) function test with TeleSpirometry. Expansion efforts are underway to equip more than 400 VA clinics with this Asynchronous Telehealth technology that stores Veterans’ lung function test results and then forwards the information to a VA pulmonologist to review

TeleSpirometry is one of VA’s significant new telehealth initiatives.

TeleSpirometry brings lung function testing closer to home 

In recent months, VA has continued a major nationwide initiative to enroll Veterans in VA health care under the PACT Act. The new law expands VA health care and benefits for Veterans exposed to burn pits, Agent Orange and other toxic substances.  

The PACT Act adds to VA’s list of conditions that are presumed to be caused by exposures, including more than a dozen lung-related conditions. Quick and easy access to lung function testing is critical for newly enrolled Veterans and for the thousands of Veterans who experience breathing difficulties each year.

Dr. David Au, VA’s deputy national program director for pulmonary medicine and an expert for Connected Care’s TeleSpirometry expansion efforts, offered an example: Veterans often go to their primary care doctor with shortness of breath and are diagnosed with “presumptive” COPD. Getting to a final diagnosis, he explained, requires follow-up testing starting with spirometry, a lung function exam.

But many Veterans, particularly those living in rural communities, do not or cannot make the long trip to a VA medical center to do their spirometry test. Au said roughly half of those who get a spirometry test actually have COPD while the other half are eventually diagnosed with some other condition like heart disease. That means a large percentage of Veterans who don’t go for follow-up testing may be receiving the wrong type of care.

Pictured above, Erin Klein Carlson, pulmonary function technologist for Minneapolis VA, demonstrates TeleSpirometry with pulmonology colleague Hayes Gregory.

TeleSpirometry an enormous step for Veterans’ lung health

“Pulmonary medicine is highly dependent on the use of testing to make diagnoses. TeleSpirometry represents an enormous step for Veterans’ lung health because it moves this important test from the distant VA medical center to the VA clinic that’s closer to home,” Au said.

Erin Klein Carlson, pulmonary function technologist at Minneapolis VA, agrees. “I had a patient once come here from Iowa. It was a 6-hour drive for him to get here. So, yes, most Veterans are extremely excited to learn they can get this test closer to home.”

Klein Carlson leads Minneapolis VA’s implementation and training efforts to add TeleSpirometry at all 13 of the health care system’s clinics. To date, 10 clinics are equipped, with three more being added this fall. She said the clinics now perform about 1,000 lung function tests each year. “We’ve been doing it here for a while, and so we’re trying to help other VA systems set up similar access,” she added.

Together, Klein Carlson, Au and Connected Care’s National Lead for Asynchronous Telehealth, Sara DeRycke, are expanding TeleSpirometry offerings at VA clinics across the nation.

November is National Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) Awareness Month.

Ask your VA care team about telehealth options that may be available in your area and visit the VA Telehealth website to learn more.