The Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation (PFF) has added 12 new sites to its PFF Care Center Network, which was launched in 2013 to accredit leading medical centers particularly dedicated to the diagnosis and treatment of pulmonary fibrosis (PF). With the expansion of the network there are now 21 centers distributed across 20 U.S. states, which focus on treating lung conditions that include idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF).
The PFF announced in a press release the addition of 12 centers to the network, all of which utilize a multidisciplinary approach to providing comprehensive care to PF patients, with specialized teams and experts in interstitial lung disease, pulmonary medicine, rheumatology, radiology and pathology. The PFF believes that the network is essential for the effective management of PF in patients, helping to ensure appropriate diagnosis, quality of clinical care, and support services.
“As the leading advocate for the pulmonary fibrosis community, we are dedicated to advancing the care of people living with this deadly disease, and this starts with providing greater access to experienced care teams,” stated the chief medical officer of the PFF, Gregory P. Cosgrove, M.D. “Working together, institutions within the Network will identify and share best practices, which foster better care and ultimately enable more institutions that embrace these practices to be certified as a PFF Care Center site.”
The members of the PFF Care Center Network are selected by a panel of peer reviewers, including members of the PFF Board of Directors, Medical Advisory Board, PFF Care Center Network and PFF Patient Registry Steering Committee, who together review and score the applications according to a series of criteria.
“When selecting sites to add to the PFF Care Center Network, we consider a center’s specific programs and its geographic location in order to best serve the needs of the broader pulmonary fibrosis community,” explained Kevin Flaherty, M.D., M.S., chairman of the Steering Committee of the PFF Care Center Network. “The new centers selected provide the highest quality patient care and an individualized approach to treatment in accordance with best evidence-based recommendations. We welcome these new centers and look forward to continuing to expand the Network in the coming year.”
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The new centers which received accreditation to enter the PFF Care Center Network are:
- Inova Fairfax Medical Campus
- Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.
- Medical University of South Carolina
- New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center and New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center
- Piedmont Healthcare
- The University of Arizona Interstitial Lung Disease Program at the University of Arizona Medical Center-University Campus in Tucson
- The University of Kansas Hospital
- Tulane University School of Medicine
- University of Alabama at Birmingham
- University of Miami Miller School of Medicine
- University of Pennsylvania
- Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis
In addition, the Pulmonary Hypertension Association (PHA) has also granted accreditation to 11 new health care centers recognized as Pulmonary Hypertension Care Centers (PHCC). There are now 17 PHCCs in the U.S., which are centers designed to improve the quality of care and clinical outcomes in patients who suffer from another lung condition, pulmonary hypertension (PH), which is often related to PF.