The Keynote Series will address timely topics in respiratory medicine with special presentations before the start of the scientific sessions Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, May 15-17, at the ATS 2022 International Conference.

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K1. Restoration in the Aftermath

8:15-9 a.m. PT | Sunday, May 15
Room 7-8 (South Building, Exhibition Level), Moscone Center

Rana L. Awdish, MD, MS, and Megan M. Hosey, PhD, will discuss how to carry on while living through impossible circumstances such as a pandemic. Using a storytelling framework, they will illustrate how the narratives of health care professionals, patients, and their families can provide a foundation for healing and moving forward collectively.

Dr. Awdish is the medical director of care experience for Henry Ford Health and associate professor of medicine at Wayne State University School of Medicine. Dr. Hosey is an assistant professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

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K2. Cutting Through the Smoke: Confronting the Climate Crisis Through Patient Care and Policy

8:15-9 a.m. PT | Monday, May 16
Room 7-8 (South Building, Exhibition Level), Moscone Center

Mary Berlik Rice, MD, MPH, associate professor of medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and John Kerry, U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate and the 68th U.S. Secretary of State, will address how medical professionals can accelerate action to confront the climate crisis.

Air pollution caused by the combustion of fossil fuels results in an estimated 350,000 premature deaths and numerous respiratory illnesses annually in the United States. The burning of fossil fuels also creates greenhouse gases that cause climate change, leading to heatwaves, wildfires, ozone smog pollution, and more potent pollen seasons — all of which are harmful to people with lung disease.

Dr. Rice, former chair of the ATS Environmental Health Policy Committee, will outline the impacts of the burning of fossil fuels and climate change on respiratory health, as well as opportunities to address the crisis through patient care, research, and advocacy. Sec. Kerry, who will participate by video, will highlight needed action from the government and the private sector to confront this health crisis.

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K3. Unfinished Business: The Achievable Goal of Eliminating All Tobacco Product Use in the United States by 2030

8:15-9 a.m. PT | Tuesday, May 17
Room 7-8 (South Building, Exhibition Level), Moscone Center

Since the mid-1960s, adult tobacco use in the United States has dropped from about 43 percent to about 14 percent today. Still, more than 30 million Americans continue to smoke, and if they don’t quit, half are predicted to die prematurely of a tobacco-caused disease.

Michael C. Fiore, MD, MPH, MBA, will highlight the greatest public health and clinic challenge facing Americans and the potential to eliminate that risk within the next decade by meeting the goals of the 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act.

Dr. Fiore is the Hilldale Professor of Medicine at the University of Wisconsin and director of the UW Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention.