Barriers to ILD and PF Care Persist Amid Diagnostic Delays and Disparities: Yet Khor, MD, PhD

Clinical trial awareness in interstitial lung disease (ILD) and pulmonary fibrosis (PF) remains a hurdle in access to care and often delays time to diagnosis and treatment. Disparate access related to social determinants of health also plays a significant role in health care access within the space.

These were the primary talking points during an education session at the American Thoracic Society 2026 International Conference in Orlando, Florida, from May 17 to 20, 2026. The session featured a panel of clinician experts within the field, driving the conversation and providing insights for other clinicians on how to advance patient care in ILD and PF.

One of the panelists, Yet Khor, MD, PhD, an associate professor of immunology research at Monash University, said in an interview with The American Journal of Managed Care^®, that one of the biggest hurdles to accessing care in ILD and PF is transitioning from primary care to specialist care.

“A lot of these patients will be sitting with the primary care physicians for at least 6 to 12 months or even longer, for years, trying to investigate symptoms…[that are]…quite nonspecific,” she explained.

In a primary care setting, a clinician may rule out standard respiratory symptoms as cardiac disease, asthma, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease before thinking about PF. Although standard, these tests create significant delays for patients before they’re even referred to a specialist’s care in tertiary centers. Khor said patients can wait sometimes 6 to 12 months or even a few years from the onset of their symptoms until they’re seen at a tertiary center by a specialist.

She also emphasized the relationship between social determinants of health and access, noting that socioeconomic status and language barriers are 2 challenges she often sees patients face, which delay their care.

“In the lower socioeconomic kind of society, patients typically will kind of hang on to the symptoms for longer before they'll reach out to ask for kind of an investigation or try to explore what might be causing their symptoms,” Khor explained. “I think the language barrier is another thing because it's such a complex disease.”