Olympus Grant to CHEST Supports Medical Education for Bronchoscopy

Monetary Support and Product Donation Furthers Physician Training and Practice in Procedures Aiding in Lung Cancer Staging and Diagnosis

CENTER VALLEY, Pa., Sept. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Olympus Corporation of the Americas Grants Committee recently approved a grant to The American College of Chest Physicians^® (CHEST) for monetary support and a product donation that will help build the physician trainee pipeline in interventional pulmonology and ensure physician proficiency in key pulmonary specialties. This grant helps advance evidence-based medical education for the purpose of improving public health.

The monetary donation funded the purchase of educational simulators for training physicians in both EBUS (Endobronchial Ultrasound) and Radial EBUS. The current CHEST lung cancer screening guidelines recommend EBUS with transbronchial needle aspiration (TBNA) as the best first procedure for locating and sampling pulmonary lesions to diagnose and stage diseaseⁱ following screening with a low-dose CT (computed tomography) scan.

The product donation to the CHEST Training Center, valued at just over $1 million, includes many of the tools and devices necessary to diagnose and stage lung cancer, including the SPiN Thoracic Navigation System^™ which was a part of the recent Olympus acquisition of Veran Medical Technologies.

"Olympus highly values its relationships with medical societies, and we are very pleased to continue our support of education for pulmonologists," said Jovan Reyerson, Vice President for Medical and Scientific Affairs at Olympus Corporation. "As medical technologies advance, so do opportunities to improve patient care. Through this grant to CHEST, Olympus is helping ensure physicians learn the methods and techniques for using these technologies to treat patients."

The largest number of CHEST course offerings, both at the annual meeting and at their Simulation Center, are in bronchoscopy. "Interventional pulmonology is a growing specialty within pulmonary medicine, and so we're seeing increasing interest in our bronchoscopy courses," said Richard Schuch, Ed.D., Chief Learning Officer and Senior Vice President of Education with the American College of Chest Physicians. "We are grateful to Olympus for their continued support, which is helping us to meet the educational needs of physicians nationwide."

Through its portfolio of products, Olympus is committed to improving the care pathway for patients with lung diseases. The company's minimally invasive technologies are intended to advance the standard of care for detecting and diagnosing diseases and disorders. Both the SPiN Thoracic Navigation System and radial EBUS (endobronchial ultrasound) procedures are designed for locating and sampling peripheral lung nodules. The EBUS-TBNA procedure uses a bronchoscope equipped with ultrasound capability designed to visualize lymph nodes beyond the bronchus and determine their exact location for needle aspiration.

To learn more about Olympus' Grants program, visit olympusamerica.com/grants.

Olympus is passionate about the solutions it creates for the medical industry. For more than 100 years, Olympus has focused on making people's lives healthier, safer and more fulfilling by helping detect, prevent, and treat disease. Olympus Corporation is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, with more than 31,000 employees worldwide in nearly 40 countries.

Olympus Corporation of the Americas, a wholly owned subsidiary of Olympus Corporation, is headquartered in Center Valley, Pennsylvania, USA, and employs more than 5,100 employees throughout locations in North and South America.

The American College of Chest Physicians^® (CHEST) is the global leader in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of chest diseases. Its mission is to champion advanced clinical practice, education, communication and research in chest medicine. It serves as an essential connection to clinical knowledge and resources for its 19,000+ members from around the world who provide patient care in pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine. For information about the American College of Chest Physicians, and its flagship journal CHEST^®, visit chestnet.org.

ⁱ Silvestri G A, Gonzalez A V, Jantz M A, Margolis M L, Gould M K, Tanoue L T, et al. Methods for staging non-small cell lung cancer: Diagnosis and management of lung cancer, 3rd ed: American College of Chest Physicians evidence-based clinical practice guidelines. Chest 2013;143:e211S-e250S. doi: 10.1378/chest.12-2355.

SOURCE Olympus