Implementing an interstitial lung disease clinic improves survival without increasing health care resource utilization

摘要

Background: Multidisciplinary collaboration is the cornerstone of interstitial lung disease (ILD) care. Delayed access to specialized care is associated with worse outcome. At the same time, the economic burden of ILD is high. We hypothesized that the establishment of a regional, dedicated ILD clinic would improve survival, but without necessarily causing an increase of health care resource utilization (HRU).