New devices and equipment have made home ventilation feasible for greater numbers of patients than ever before. However, better access has been accompanied by more complexity, and it has been hard for education and training to keep up with the evolving options in this relatively new field.

“The technology has rapidly evolved to the point where there are multiple types of devices, manufacturers, and methods of monitoring,” said Jason Ackrivo, MD, MSCE, Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. “This is an area of pulmonary medicine that is not part of the bread-and-butter curriculum and is often overlooked during pulmonary fellowships.”

PEEPs Talking PAP, an online community of international clinicians, was created to help fill this gap, and CHEST 2024 attendees will have a chance to learn from the group’s expertise during PEEPs Talking PAP: Interactive Case-Based Discussions in Home Ventilation, Tuesday, October 8, at 11:15 am ET, in Room 254AB of the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center.

All three directors of PEEPs Talking PAP will be involved in the presentations and panel discussion—Bethany Lussier, MD, FCCP, Associate Professor at UT Southwestern Medical Center, as Chair; Dr. Ackrivo as Co-Chair; and Reshma Amin, MD, FCCP, Director of the Long-Term Ventilation Program at The Hospital for Sick Children and Professor at the University of Toronto, as Moderator.

“Home ventilation education is really lacking globally,” Dr. Lussier said. “Even pulmonologists, who are the experts in this, are not always comfortable with it. We want to make this available to adult and pediatric pulmonologists around the world with case-based discussions.”

Three trainees—Kristina Collins, MBBS, from UT Southwestern; Gulus Emre, MD, from Penn Medicine; and Ignacio Oyarzun, MD, from The Hospital for Sick Children—will present high-yield educational cases highlighting nuanced aspects of home ventilation, including choosing a device and transitioning from inpatient to home ventilation.

Dr. Lussier noted that many types of clinicians will find value in the discussion.

“We want to reach anyone who may need to do home ventilation on the fly for a limited number of patients and may not have the comfort or support system of a well-established clinic,” she said. “Even if you’re only interested in one of these particular cases, there’s something in all of them that will speak to whatever level you practice at, whether it’s pediatrics to adults or respiratory therapy to advanced practice provider [care]. It runs the gamut.”