For Amie J. Miller, MSN, APRN, AOCNP, ACHPN, CTTS, November always brings opportunity, and a little frustration.
She was excited at how many attendees at the Association of Cancer Care Centers’ (ACCC) 51st Annual Meeting & Cancer Center Business Summit knew that November was Lung Cancer Awareness Month. But she admitted it’s tough following the annual pink out to promote Breast Cancer Awareness Month that comes every October.
Lung cancer, she notes, kills more Americans than breast, colon, or prostate cancer combined. Amie J. Miller, MSN, APRN, AOCNP, ACHPN, CTTS | Image: LinkedIn Miller shared this observation at Thursday’s ACCC session on how artificial intelligence (AI) and business intelligence solutions can help health systems make practice improvements. She runs an AI-fueled effort that saves lives and brings more than $1 million a year to Sarasota Memorial Health Care System in southwest Florida.
At Sarasota’s Brian D. Jellison Cancer Institute , Miller is coordinator of the Lung Cancer Early Detection and Prevention Program, which features an initiative to follow up on incidental pulmonary nodules (IPNs) detected through AI. IPNs are asymptomatic lesions that may be detected on a CT scan during an emergency room visit or other intervention; these could signal early lung cancer but often go unaddressed.
Recent therapeutic advances in the treatment of lung cancer mean survival rates are vastly improved—if cancer is caught early. However, as a 2024 report from the American Lung Association showed, disparities are widening in biomarker testing and lung cancer screening, meaning that that whether one dies of lung cancer may depend on access. Miller said national lung cancer screening rates remain stubbornly low at 18.1%, although there are pockets of the country—such as the catchment area for St. Elizabeth’s in Kentucky—where about 45% of the eligible population is screened.
As Miller explained, understanding who is eligible for screening is key. Recommendations from the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) call for screening those aged 50 to 80 years who are current smokers or who have quit within the past 15 years, after smoking 20 years or more. “When we look at the data, only about 42% of […]
Use of AI Lets Health System Find Lung Cancer at Early Stages
