Leveraging a 3D Lung Nodule Educational Tool to Reduce Patient Distress

As the Director of Thoracic Surgery and Thoracic Oncology and Medical Director for the Lung Screening Program at Maine Medical Center, I specialize in minimally invasive procedures in the treatment of thoracic diseases, including both benign and malignant diseases of the lung, esophagus, and pleura, along with the surgical treatment of lung and esophageal cancer as well as lung-sparing cancer surgery. As a past instructor of minimally thoracic procedures, I also have an interest in both benign and malignant diseases of the esophagus including reflux, hiatal hernia and esophageal motility disorders.

Theresa Roelke, GNP Theresa is a Geriatric Nurse Practitioner for Maine Medical Center (MMC) where she manages a comprehensive, patient-centered Lung Screening Program which focuses on lung health. Theresa is part of the Northern New England Clinical and Translational Research Network where she supports research and protocol review for Maine Medical Center Research Institute. She also supports the Maine Lung Cancer Coalition which serves to increase lung screening and lung screening awareness across Maine. Additionally, Theresa serves on the Maine Cancer Foundation/ CDC 2021-2025 Maine Cancer Plan, the American Cancer Society Tobacco Treatment Roundtable, is part of the MaineHealth 2020 Innovator Cohort and the 2020 MaineHealth Provider Leadership Fellowship. In addition to her clinical duties, Theresa is involved in several Maine Health initiatives such as bringing lung screening across MaineHealth in an effort to bring lung screening to rural Mainers and projects that involve the use of 3D modeling and virtual reality to help engage and educate patients on disease and disease prevention while encouraging health stewardship. She is also leading a project to build portable units to deactivate viral particles on filtered face mask using UV light called, UV LAVE™. Two prototypes will be introduced Fall 2020 for use in clinical settings.