Abstract Rationale Autoimmune-related interstitial lung disease (ILD) requires careful evaluation and multi-specialty management. While multidisciplinary conferencing has been regarded as a gold standard for diagnostic accuracy, there is often an absence of real-time clinical collaboration, expert rheumatology input, and shared decision-making with patients highlighting important gaps in practice. This analysis aims to describe our multidisciplinary clinic (MDC) approach and detail patient demographics, preliminary diagnoses, and computed tomography (CT) lung patterns of our patient cohort. Methods An MDC was established by a rheumatologist and pulmonologist at our tertiary center at the University of Miami for patients with ILD of suspected or confirmed autoimmune etiology. MDC patients are seen the same day by both physicians and subsequently staffed conference-style with final assessments and treatment plans determined collaboratively alongside patients. We performed a retrospective review between 5/2024 and 5/2025 of our patient cohort and extracted demographics, working rheumatologic diagnosis, and ILD patterns. Results Between 5/2024 and 5/2025, a total of 49 patients were evaluated in our MDC clinic. The median age was 54 years old, and 77% were female and 22% were male. 71% identified as White, 18% as Black, .02% American Indian, and .02% Asian. Of the 46 patients who disclosed their ethnicity, 63% identified as Hispanic/Latino, and 31% as Non-Hispanic/Latino. Upon initial visit, the most common working rheumatologic diagnoses included antisynthetase syndrome (12%), interstitial pneumonia with autoimmune features (12%), systemic sclerosis (12%), and mixed connective tissue disease (12%). Other diagnoses included dermatomyositis (8%), lupus, 6%), rheumatoid arthritis (10%), and Sjogren’s (6%). Radiographically, 49% of patients had non-specific interstitial pneumonia (NSIP) with 37% of these patients having fibrotic features, and 21% showing overlap with organizing pneumonia (OP). The remaining patients had usual interstitial pneumonia (24%), organizing pneumonia (1%) or undifferentiated ILD imaging patterns (18%). Notably, nine patients were referred for transplant evaluation, and three patients were successfully transplanted within this time-frame. Conclusion In standard care models, segmented specialty care may create delays in diagnosis and treatment of autoimmune-related ILD. Our multi-disciplinary approach aims to improve diagnostic accuracy with real-time clinical collaboration that may result in earlier treatment escalation and transplant referral. With the creation of an ILD registry, we intend to analyze treatment strategies and resulting clinical outcomes in our cohort. This abstract is funded by: None
Avendano et al. (Fri,) studied this question.