Interstitial lung disease care

The simple act of breathing becomes a challenge when you have interstitial lung disease. ILD is a group of more than 200 lung disorders that cause inflammation and scarring of the air sacs of your lungs, making it hard for them to expand and absorb oxygen. That can leave you tired and short of breath and cause you to cough.

Different forms of ILD have different causes, and getting to the root cause is essential to properly treating ILD. It often takes the expertise of a team of specialists working together to learn the source of your symptoms and to create an effective treatment plan that can stop further lung damage and help you breathe better.

At Penn Medicine, experts across several disciplines come together to discuss your symptoms, diagnose the cause of your ILD in the least invasive way possible, and monitor your treatment. They can often properly diagnose and treat ILD even in people with complex cases who haven’t gotten effective treatments elsewhere. The deep knowledge and expertise of our providers ensure you’ll receive exceptional care.

With the largest group of interstitial lung disease specialists in our region and beyond, our providers understand the nuances of interstitial lung disease and the many factors that can trigger it. Your care team may include pulmonologists, chest radiologists, lung pathologists, thoracic surgeons, critical care doctors, nurses, and geneticists who all specialize in interstitial lung disease.

• Advanced diagnostic techniques: To ensure you get an accurate diagnosis and treatment, our providers use the most sophisticated technology and methods to evaluate you, including high resolution CT (HRCT) scans, pulmonary function tests, targeted diagnostic bloodwork, and other procedures. We focus on noninvasive and minimally invasive diagnostic tests.
• Access to the latest therapies: You’ll be given a comprehensive treatment plan that includes the latest medicines and therapies available for ILD. As an academic medical center, Penn Medicine’s providers have quicker access to promising new treatments that could lead to better outcomes.
• Customized care: Your treatment plan for interstitial lung disease is personalized to fit your medical needs. If you’re diagnosed with other conditions like autoimmune disease or pulmonary hypertension, your care team brings in other specialists from across Penn Medicine’s network to address all of your health concerns.
• Internationally renowned leaders in ILD care: You benefit from top-tier health care. Some of our experts have helped write international guidelines for treating ILD, and Penn Medicine is part of the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation Care Center Network for its expertise in treating fibrotic lung diseases.

Our researchers are working to enhance the understanding of ILD and improve diagnosis and treatment. In addition to conducting clinical trials of new therapies, our researchers study the genetics of the disease, maintain a registry of people with ILD, and keep a blood and tissue repository for use in research. Because of our robust research efforts, you may be able to join a clinical trial and have access to new treatments that are in development.

Penn Medicine also has physicians who serve on the board of medical advisers for Team Telomere, an organization that enhances research of telomere biology disorders, which is linked to a type of ILD called interstitial pulmonary fibrosis. Our goal is to advance the treatment of ILD and help guide care.