Physicians in Stanford Health Care’s Lung Transplant Program are partnering with pulmonologists in the San Luis Obispo area to address a critical need for specialized lung and pulmonary care. By bringing Stanford Medicine faculty into the community, the clinic targets patients with advanced lung diseases and those for whom transplantation or advanced therapy is the only option.

As a national leader in pulmonary care, Stanford Health Care ranks among the top 1% of centers for lung and pulmonary surgery, according to 2023-2024 U.S. News & World Report national rankings. The Lung Transplant Program at Stanford Health Care has exceptional transplant outcomes that consistently exceed national averages, including:

• Faster lung transplants
• Higher lung acceptance rates
• Excellent post-transplant patient and graft survival rates
  

“Recent technological advances have increased organ transplant opportunities for those in need, as well as generated therapies capable of addressing advanced lung diseases in non-transplant settings,” explains Gundeep Dhillon, MD, MPH, medical director of the Heart-Lung and Lung Transplant Program at Stanford Health Care. “We’re uniquely positioned to offer the best possible care in these complex situations, and our outreach efforts focus on making that care available to as many patients as possible.”

Expanding access to specialized care
Located approximately three hours from both Los Angeles and San Francisco, San Luis Obispo is an outlying community, which can complicate medical care for an aging demographic.

“Our location and the high cost of living make it difficult to recruit physicians, especially in the numbers required to adequately treat an aging population with a high disease burden and associated complications,” explains Ian Britton, MD, a pulmonologist and critical care medicine specialist at Central Coast Chest Consultants in San Luis Obispo.

For local patients with advanced lung disease, access to specialized care generally requires extended travel times to regional centers. In some cases, this can be difficult or impossible, depending on the severity of the patient’s condition. Stanford Health Care’s Lung Clinic in San Luis Obispo aims to partner with local physicians to identify patients in need and provide them with appropriate care, including:

• Evaluation by Stanford Medicine faculty within a patient’s local community
• Assessment of patients as potential transplant candidates or eligible for clinical trials or advanced therapies
• Employment of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) to facilitate transport to and from Stanford Health Care

“Our previous success providing these services to underserved communities motivates us to continue those efforts in places where we believe our support can have the greatest impact,” says Dr. Dhillon.

Beyond transplantation, therapies for advanced lung diseases now offer effective alternatives for long-term care. “These clinics streamline access to rapidly expanding opportunities for lifesaving interventions and optimize care for patients with chronic conditions and limited access to effective treatment,” says Dr. Dhillon.

Eliminating barriers and saving lives
Dr. Britton emphasizes that providing the necessary care for these patients requires teams of specialists unavailable outside of tertiary or quaternary care centers. "It takes a village to appropriately manage these diseases, whether through preparation for or recovery from a transplant or targeted treatment of a particular condition.”

This effort starts with identifying those needing specialized care and coordinating that care among nurses, pharmacists, and multiple physician specialists. Dr. Britton describes the success of a previous referral to Dr. Dhillon as an example of the impact of this kind of outreach: “After diagnosing a local patient with rapidly declining lung function, they were quickly evaluated and ultimately received a transplant within a few months of the referral.” The patient underwent post-transplant recovery close to home and is currently doing well.

Dr. Dhillon and Deborah Levine, MD, FCCP, FAST, lung transplant specialist and clinical professor of medicine, have taken a team approach to officially establishing the Lung Clinic in San Luis Obispo by providing regular in-person evaluations. Their goal is to remove barriers to health care experienced by patients in that community, especially those with lung diseases.

“Partnering with local physicians gives patients access to our experience and resources,” says Dr. Dhillon. “We want to decrease the burdens associated with this type of specialized treatment in order to maximize its benefits.”