Defining Interstitial Lung Disease Education in Pulmonary Fellowship: A Mixed Methods Study.

Area of Science:

• Pulmonary Medicine
• Medical Education
• Interstitial Lung Disease (ILD)

Background:

• General pulmonologists often manage interstitial lung disease (ILD) due to access barriers to specialized centers.
• Pulmonary fellows report low confidence in managing ILD patients.
• Current ILD fellowship education lacks defined essential learning components.

Purpose of the Study:

• To define the essential components of an Interstitial Lung Disease (ILD) curriculum for pulmonary fellowship programs.
• To identify critical skills and conditions for fellows to diagnose and manage ILD.
• To assess the expected level of practice independence for ILD diagnosis and management.

Main Methods:

• Exploratory sequential mixed methods study combining semi-structured interviews with ILD experts and a three-round modified Delphi online survey.
• 41 participants including ILD experts, general pulmonologists, and clinician educators.
• Consensus achieved for essential skills and conditions based on a 75% agreement threshold.

Main Results:

• Seven key themes emerged from interviews: diagnostics, classification, treatment, care decisions, education, site of care, and patient journey.
• 48 essential skills and 29 essential conditions for an ILD curriculum were identified through the Delphi survey.
• Participants anticipate higher independence in diagnosing ILD conditions compared to managing them.

Conclusions:

• A consensus-driven outline for an Interstitial Lung Disease (ILD) curriculum in pulmonary fellowship training has been established.
• This framework will guide the development of ILD educational content for future pulmonologists.
• Improved fellowship training is expected to enhance the management of ILD patients by general pulmonologists.