Pulmonary function testing
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Search complete. 32 mentions across 13 episodes found for "Pulmonary function testing".
Oct 30, 2026
Kirsten Michelle CillsGUEST
it.
Kirsten Michelle CillsGUEST
Okay, it would be, I would make the party like a gender reveal style party, but I would just be like revealing the number of my PFTs.
Kirsten Michelle CillsGUEST
And what would the party be called? I guess I would call it like the farewell tour or something.
Kirsten Michelle CillsGUEST
Yeah.
Brian BizikGUEST
So just kind of however it works for you, whether it's a an office champion that's a nurse or an ma or part of your emr if you're in epic putting something in however we need to do this so that those two blood tests can be part of your therapy and and just understanding you know is is eosinophil and type 2 inflammation part of the story okay how am i going to go and and is is alpha one part of my patient's story and if it is do I need to intervene or address that? So just those two tests, we've got to get them and it just needs to become routine.
Brian BizikGUEST
So hopefully we can make changes to make that as a routine part of care as PFTs or CTs are.
Mike WellsGUEST
Completely agree.
Mike WellsGUEST
I think the most critical thing for physicians and providers to consider is testing.
Leland StillmanHOST
Like, for example, we could look at someone's VO2 max as a surrogate for energy.
Leland StillmanHOST
We could look at someone's PFTs, pulmonary function tests, or we could look at their VO2 max for lung function, right? But these are not perfect markers.
Leland StillmanHOST
I often will ask patients questions that are sort of practical.
Leland StillmanHOST
Like, can you go up one flight of stairs without getting out of breath? Two, three, four, right? Can you walk around the block level surface, let's say, without getting out of breath? I always try, particularly in complex cases where the stakes are high, stakes being like, I die of my autoimmune or inflammatory disease, or I, you know, arrest its progress and have quality of life, or I get significant improvement in my symptoms and I have prolonged life and much better quality of life than I had when I came to the practice, right? I'm always looking for something I can relate to, right? And so I'm always looking for, what are we gonna track? In her case, I said, look, I want you to walk around the block every day and track how much you cough and how much you're short of breath.
EmilyGUEST
I also have myositis, which is just an overlap with the scleroderma, which affects the muscles, but all tissues.
EmilyGUEST
So I have regular PFTs where they're checking the lungs on the regular and they're constantly comparing like to the baseline of where I started.
EmilyGUEST
I've had a little bit of decline in the lungs, but as my doctor tells me, I'm still an A.
EmilyGUEST
So that's good.
Morgan SchulzHOST
It's kind of newer to the healthcare industry.
Morgan SchulzHOST
And one of those things was blood work and something called pulmonary function testing.
Morgan SchulzHOST
And for people who don't know, pulmonary function tests or PFTs, They take you into a room and they run you through about an hour of tests, doing various things, plugging your nose, breathing in as far as you can.
Morgan SchulzHOST
You're sucking on like this little instrument and they measure like CO2 ratio to oxygen, a bunch of stuff.
Morgan SchulzHOST
And they take those results and they send them to the doctor and the doctor sends them to the insurance company.
Morgan SchulzHOST
to approve of this medication.
Morgan SchulzHOST
So I got all this done.
Morgan SchulzHOST
I got the blood work done, the PFTs done, and I didn't think anything about it.
BradHOST
What's going to happen if there's a complication? What if you blow an IV? What if like there's an issue with you need an actual, depending on your state, you need a good faith exam before they do it.
BradHOST
Can you have someone staff it over the weekend that just gives these infusions or do you need to be on call for every single one of these? Because now like in Texas here, you have to have a good faith exam before you do these like you know the hangover remedies if you will you can't just have a nurse or someone give it to them anymore at least you can't do it without running it by a licensed clinician first is my understanding of it so now there's more complexity to it all these service lines seems sexy like for example we added on pfts i was like you know we see a lot of asthma patients it's very difficult to get into pulmonology i don't want to respectfully step on pulmonary's toes but at the same point you know we had a meeting and we were like look We don't want to hurt pulmonary's feelings by doing PFTs.
BradHOST
But at the same time, it's like there are those patients that come in convinced they have severe breathing issues.
BradHOST
And could we do a PFT being like, look, dude, your flow loop is completely normal.
BradHOST
That's a discussion between you and the consultants.
BradHOST
I never want to steal their business, just like I'm sure they don't want to steal mine.
BradHOST
And I don't want to go beyond my level of expertise, but I thought that adding on these PFTs would be something amazing to add to my clinic.
BradHOST
But then now I have to teach these people, my MAs, my medical assistants, how to do it correctly.
Bridgett WilliamsGUEST
It'd be challenging.
Linda FryHOST
Because that language is over there, right, and that, you know, PFTs and, you know-
Bridgett WilliamsGUEST
Uh-huh
Linda FryHOST
... also s- yeah, yeah.
Mark SteierSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
DLCO.
Jeanne ParsonGUEST
Some places call it spirometry with DLCO, or they call it just the PFTs, which is pulmonary function tests, I guess.
Jeanne ParsonGUEST
And that I would have that every six to 12 months and a CT scan every year if needed.
Jeanne ParsonGUEST
So I actually had to jump through a lot of hoops to get that breathing test scheduled because they book way out ahead of time.
Liz RohrHOST
In the last episode, when I talked about, do we actually have a COPD diagnosis here? It's helpful to just quickly look at the chart for a patient like this if you haven't met them before or if you're covering for another provider or if they're a new patient.
Liz RohrHOST
What records do we have of their last PFTs? Have they ever seen pulmonology before? What medications are they taking? Um, when were they last seen? And just kind of doing a general review of the chart.
Liz RohrHOST
So do we know that they have a diagnosis of COPD to begin with, right? Because if somebody comes in with shortness of breath and a purulent cough, we don't necessarily know that it's a COPD exacerbation.
Liz RohrHOST
Having a previous diagnosis of that helps, but we can further back that information up by looking at the PFTs and understanding where they're at in their disease process.
Liz RohrHOST
Again, I go-- I talk about that in the other episode if you want support with that.
Liz RohrHOST
So the first thing I'm gonna do when I have this patient in the room, um, in addition to confirming the diagnosis by doing that quick look at their chart of COPD, I'm gonna think about what is their actual diagnosis right now.
John SherretGUEST
I wouldn't say underuse.
John SherretGUEST
I just, what I'll see is I'll see people, primary care, they'll send patients to a hospital visit to get a PFT, and then they'll only order spirometry.
John SherretGUEST
And it's like, if you're gonna order spirometry, you, you might as well get the lung volumes and diffusion with it.
John SherretGUEST
'Cause I'll have a, I'll have some consults where people come in and they've gotten, they've gone to the PFT lab, but they only got an abbreviated version, and it's like, okay, I don't have the full information.
John SherretGUEST
We need to get the lung volumes and diffusion.
John SherretGUEST
But also I w- PFTs are a little tricky because it really, you really want the patient to be at a, like at a baseline before you order it.
John SherretGUEST
So I sometimes I almost prefer that they haven't ordered it, like it, and then I can determine, oh, is there something I need to work on before I order the PFT? It, but if it's ordered, that's still not bad, 'cause I can always compare it in a future PFT, and sometimes it'll detect something.
John SherretGUEST
So it's probably better that they are being ordered-
3 more episodes mention Pulmonary function testing.
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