The Pulmonary Clinical Core Curriculum series kicks off this week at the ATS 2026 International Conference, with the first session from 2:15–3:45 p.m. on Tuesday, May 19, in the Orange County Convention Center Room W224C (Level II, OCCC West Concourse). The second session will build on material presented in the first and will be hosted in the same location from 11 a.m.–12:30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 20.

“The ATS Core Curriculum centers important voices: emerging educators and investigators who are working on the leading edge of their topics, with topics that are selected to optimize delivery of new information,” said Erin Camac, DO, ATSF, co-chair of the Adult Pulmonary Clinical Core Curriculum.

This year, the Pulmonary Core Curriculum will focus on an area of practice that has been rapidly evolving: pulmonary hypertension (PH).

“Since it was last covered, multiple new medications have come to market for this patient population, and guidelines for patient diagnosis and management have been updated,” said Dr. Camac, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine and program director for the Pulmonary Medicine and Critical Care Fellowship.

Josalyn Cho, MD, ATSF, associate professor at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, is Dr. Camac’s co-chair of the Pulmonary Core Curriculum series.

According to Dr. Camac, real-world data suggest the profession is still behind the guidelines regarding management of this important patient population.

“Only 29 percent of U.S. adult patients with group one diagnoses are treated with modern, guideline-recommended, multi-drug therapies immediately after diagnosis,” Dr. Camac emphasized. “Additional complexities are also new to many clinicians, like risk-scoring systems and activin signaling inhibitors for adjunctive therapy when used in the right context. Although CTEPH [chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension] is now familiar to most practitioners, screening prevalence is still low, with many physicians unfamiliar with when and how best to screen patients.”

She further explained that although echocardiography is commonly ordered in the evaluation of patients with under-explained dyspnea, it’s not adequate screening for this serious entity.

“Deciding to refer a patient to a CTEPH expert center is a big decision, especially for patients whose social determinants of health make travel difficult. I know I need a reminder about when it’s important to pull that trigger,” Dr. Camac said.

Further topics covered by the Adult Pulmonary Clinical Core Curriculum Sessions over the two days will include:

• Updates on the diagnosis and classification of pulmonary hypertension.
• Risk stratification.
• Chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH).
• General principles of patient management.
• Caring for special populations.

“The curriculum will cover risk-based initiation of therapy, when and how to adjust or add-on therapy, and review current recommendations for managing common comorbidities,” Dr. Cho said.

“Our core curriculum committee works hard every year to bring [attendees] high-yield, cutting-edge, peer-reviewed updates to keep our community’s practice state of the art. We hope folks will stick around after the session for a moderated Q&A with our panel of speakers,” Dr. Camac said.