Regional Medical Collaboration May Lead to Early Detection of Interstitial Lung Disease

Background: Establishing a highly accurate regional medical collaboration (RMC) system for interstitial lung disease (ILD) may facilitate early disease detection, improve patient satisfaction, and enhance advanced-stage care. Methods: We investigated whether the lung conditions in patients cared for by our RMC system for ILD were detected earlier than those with usual care. Additionally, we investigated patients' preferences regarding its use. Result: The time from respiratory symptoms onset to hospital referral did not differ significantly between patients cared for by the system and those with usual care. However, the number of patients referred to our hospital for suspected ILD before the onset of symptoms was significantly higher from the participating institutions than from other institutions (44.1% vs. 24.6%, p = 0.025). Additionally, 66.0% of patients preferred the medical care with the system. Conclusions: Establishing an RMC system for ILD may lead to earlier disease detection and contribute to improvement in medical care delivery to patients.