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DURING A NORMAL DAY, you
breathe nearly 25,000 times. However,
for people with lung disease, they may
have difficulty breathing and may not
be able to supply their body with the
oxygen it needs to work and grow. For
some, breathing without effort is often
impossible. Sometimes lung
disease can be so severe it
affects independence—even
quality of life.
Now a new Kadlec Clinic
specialty can offer a breath
of hope.
This summer,
pulmonologist
Evan Schmitz, MD,
joined the Kadlec
medical staff, creating
Kadlec Clinic Pulmonology.
Dr. Schmitz provides evaluation,
diagnosis and treatment for adults with
respiratory problems including lung
disease, asthma, chronic obstructive
pulmonary disease (COPD),
lung cancer and tumors, and sleep
disorders. As a pulmonologist, he has
expertise in helping patients who have
breathlessness, cough, wheezing and
chest tightness, as well as abnormalities
of a chest X-ray, chest CT scan and
other chest-imaging studies.
“Many lung problems can be
managed successfully with your primary
care physician,” said Dr. Schmitz. “But
if it is more challenging or not well
controlled, you would be referred to
a pulmonologist.”
Dr. Schmitz is board-certified in
pulmonology and internal medicine,
and he did fellowship training in both
pulmonology and critical care.
“Pulmonology is a subspecialty of
internal medicine. Physicians studying
pulmonology also study critical care,”
he said. “I see patients in my
office and also in the hospital.
If a patient is in Kadlec’s
Intensive Care Unit and in
need of a ventilator, I work
in the ICU to provide that
treatment, including getting
the patient off the ventilator,
which can be tricky.”
He often sees these
patients after they are released
from Kadlec. “It creates a
continuity of care, which is important,”
he said.
Dr. Schmitz coordinates care with
a number of other physicians from
Breathe
easier
What advice does
Dr. Schmitz have to
keep your lungs healthy?
“Don’t smoke. Don’t smoke. Don’t smoke,” he said.
“There are things that you are exposed to that
you don’t have control over, which can cause lung
damage. Smoking is one that you do have control
over. If you are a smoker now, stop and your lungs
will begin to heal.”
For more information
about the services
available at
Kadlec Clinic Pulmonology,
call
(509) 942-3228
.
primary care to cardiothoracic surgery.
He may, for instance, get a referral from
a primary care physician about a patient
who may have lung cancer. He would do
the biopsy to determine if it is cancer,
and then would coordinate care with the
cardiothoracic surgeons who would do
the actual cancer surgery.
www.kadlec.org
5
Evan Schmitz, MD
pulmonologist