Daily News Boston CHEST 2024

October 6-9, 2024

Interactive session to present latest updates on community-acquired pneumonia

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, clinicians were beginning to recognize significant heterogeneity among patients with community-acquired pneumonia, indicating that not everyone should be treated with the same standard antibiotic regimen.

Experts will examine how that understanding has evolved in recent years and discuss impacts of the changing disease model during the session, Hot Topics in 2024 on Community-Acquired Pneumonia: From Evidence to Practice, Monday, October 7, at 1:30 pm ET, in Room 205C of the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center.

Barbara Jones, MD
Barbara Jones, MD

“There are some really exciting changes in the diagnosis and management of pneumonia that are coming around the corner,” said Session Co-Chair, Barbara Jones, MD, a pulmonary and critical care physician at the University of Utah Health. “Several of the panelists for this session have been part of the [American Thoracic Society/Infectious Diseases Society of America]community-acquired pneumonia guideline update, and it should be a really great conversation.”

Dr. Jones and Session Chair, Charles Dela Cruz, MD, PhD, Professor of Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine and Director of the Center for Acute Lung Injury and Infection at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, will be joined by Kristina Crothers, MD, FCCP, of the University of Washington, and Jamie Felzer, MD, MPH, of Emory University.

One of the most notable changes has been the widespread availability of new diagnostic technologies, including rapid diagnostic tests for viruses and bacteria and lung ultrasounds, Dr. Jones said. Beyond diagnostics, pneumonia management is evolving, with the emergence of host-directed treatments and more elegant antibiotic strategies.

There has also been an important change in the implementation of best-practice principles for the treatment of pneumonia. With the development of better ways to characterize and treat pathogens and the host response, clinicians will be more responsible for individualizing patient care so that it is better optimized and more precise.

“There is going to be an age of more nuance and complexity in pneumonia,” Dr. Jones said. “That’s what I hope that clinicians attending this session will take away—a better sense of how to individualize to get the best outcomes for their patients.”

Save the date for the next Annual Meeting, October 19 to 22, 2025, in Chicago. If you were inspired by the world-class educational sessions you attended in Boston, learn how you can help shape next year’s curriculum. Submit topic ideas from areas you’re passionate about, topics affecting your practice, or new technologies you’d like to learn more about by Wednesday, December 4, at 2 pm CT.