Welcome Message
Thank you for joining us at the American Thoracic Society (ATS) Lung Disease Week. This week (March 6th – 12th) is focused on palliative care in patients with serious respiratory illness. Palliative care is specialized medical care focused on improving quality of life and is rooted in providing patients and their families or caregivers support in coping with symptom burden and stress to enhance well-being. Palliative care is meant to be provided alongside and integrated with other medical therapies and should not be limited to patients at the very end of life. The use of palliative care among patients with cancer or those who are terminally ill is common. However, more recently, there has been increased recognition that palliative care should be available to all patients with any type of chronic respiratory illness or those with high symptom burden given the demonstrated benefits. People living with serious respiratory illness often have a chaotic end of life, seeking relief of debilitating symptoms such as breathlessness in emergency departments and receiving fragmented and burdensome care near the end of life that may not be aligned with their values and wishes. Therefore, ATS has focused efforts and research to improve access to palliative care among patients with respiratory illnesses and by promoting initiatives to support palliative care. We hope that during this year’s focus on palliative care, we can raise awareness about this important topic among patients, their families and health care professionals alike.
Fahid Alghanim, MD
Fellow of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine
University of Maryland Medical Center
Donald Sullivan, MD, MA, MCR
Associate Professor
Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine
Associate Program Director
Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Fellowship
Oregon Health and Science University
Angel Soto
Associate Director of Education & Mission Delivery
National Scleroderma Foundation
Member, ATS Public Advisory Roundtable
Mary McGowan
Chief Executive Officer
Foundation for Sarcoidosis Research
Member, ATS Public Advisory Roundtable
ATS Palliative Care Week Partners
The National Scleroderma Foundation’s mission is to advance medical research, promote disease awareness, and provide support and education to people with scleroderma, their families and support networks.
The Foundation for Sarcoidosis Research (FSR) is the nation's leading nonprofit organization dedicated to finding a cure for this disease and to improving care for sarcoidosis patients. Since its establishment in 2000, FSR has funded numerous domestic and international research efforts and has worked diligently to provide resources to thousands. FSR provides funding and collaborations for research and initiatives which focus on the understanding of sarcoidosis, addresses the causes of the disease, counters the suffering of patients, and advances the potential for a cure.
