New lung clinic to tackle Nova Scotia's long waitlists for breathing tests

A new lung clinic opening in Halifax at the end of November is hoping to tackle long waitlists for breathing tests, while also aiming to act as a recruitment tool to fill respiratory therapy vacancies in Nova Scotia.

The Nova Scotia Lung Wellness Clinic has been in the works for over two years. It was a proposed solution to a growing problem during the COVID-19 pandemic, when people in some parts of the province faced a four-year wait for a five-minute spirometry test.

"When I tell my colleagues elsewhere in the world about how long people wait here for a breathing test, it's quite embarrassing because we know that we can do better and it's a problem that has a simple solution," said Sanja Stanojevic, an associate professor at Dalhousie University's department of community health and epidemiology.

Stanojevic is a part of the team that came up with the solution of creating the clinic.

When it opens, respiratory therapy students at Dalhousie will administer the test under the supervision of a preceptor provided by Nova Scotia Health.

It will give them on-the-job training, which is a requirement for their program, while also tackling the long waitlist.

Spirometry tests are key in diagnosing pulmonary conditions such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). An estimated 13 per cent of Nova Scotians have COPD, but Stanojevic says without the test, it's frequently misdiagnosed.

She said making someone wait for a spirometry test is like making a diabetic wait years for a diagnostic blood test.

"What that means if a doctor guesses that someone has COPD, they might be put on treatments that aren't working for them," she explained.

"They might be put on treatments that have side effects and unintended consequences. By providing accurate diagnostic tests, we're able to get the right diagnosis for an individual in a timely way."

The clinic is a partnership between the Lung Association of N.S. and P.E.I., Nova Scotia Health, and the provincial Health Department, but it's being funded by GSK Canada, a biopharma company.

It gave Dalhousie $300,000 to test the clinic as an 18-month pilot program.

In a statement, the Department of Health and Wellness said the project "demonstrates how our health-care system, community and industry can work together to find solutions to better support Nova Scotians."

Catherine Gunn, director of the school of health sciences at Dalhousie, is overseeing the education piece of the clinic.