Screening for lung cancer before symptoms appear is important. Without it, most people don’t see signs of the disease until it has spread to other parts of the body, which is harder to treat.

Just ask Barney B. who responded to a screening advertisement, discussed it with his health care provider, received a scan, received a lung cancer diagnosis, had surgery, and has had five years of negative follow-up CT scans.

To help health care providers have meaningful and sensitive discussions with at-risk patients—discussions just like Barney’s— a unique online educational program titled, “Shared Decision-Making in Lung Cancer Screening” was developed by Thomas Jefferson University and the American College of Chest Physicians. We participated in development conversations and loaned our lung cancer screening video to the course. This free course is available from either organization.

Health care professionals who complete the three module course (1.25 CME credits) should be able to identify persons eligible for annual lung cancer screening, educate eligible persons about the potential benefits and harms of screening, help eligible persons make a well-informed, shared decision about screening, and inform persons who smoke or who have stopped smoking about available tobacco treatment services.

We encourage all health care providers to take advantage of this free resource.