“When a patient comes to us with a lung problem, it is not just about their lungs,” said Dawn DeMeo, MD, MPH, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and a pulmonary/critical care trained physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. “It’s about the immediate environment where we all live, and it’s about understanding the biologic impact of a multitude of environmental experiences and linking biology to outcomes in a thoughtful and productive way.”

Dr. DeMeo will co-chair a panel of experts to examine the array of social constructs, biological factors, and environmental influences impacting lung health and explore understudied aspects of these social determinants of lung disease to provide actionable ways to address these concerns in research, therapeutic discovery, and equitable clinical care during an ATS 2026 International Conference Scientific Symposium on Tuesday, May 19.

“Global Disparities and Social Determinants: Innovative Interventions for Lung Health” takes place from 9:15–10:45 a.m. in W240 (Level II, OCCC West Concourse). Additional themes will include state-of-the-art approaches to evaluating race-neutral spirometry, local neighborhoods and climate change, a framework for sex/gender consideration of social determinants, and epigenomic plasticity as a targetable feature for therapeutic intervention.

Dr. DeMeo said the panelists will provide important insights into recent studies and developments connecting lung health and social determinants.

“We will highlight developments that have allowed us to better quantify and understand disparities. We’ll share advances in data science, geospatial methods to understand climate and neighborhoods, as well as insights from wearable technologies and longitudinal cohorts,” Dr. DeMeo said. “It’s really understanding the acceleration of ways in which we can link biology and disparities.”

Mary B. Rice, MD, MPH, associate professor of environmental respiratory health and director, Center for Climate, Health and the Global Environment (C-CHANGE) at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and a pulmonary/critical care physician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, will address climate change and lung health disparities.

Arianne K. Baldomero, MD, MS, ATSF, assistant professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Minnesota School of Medicine and Public Health, and a core investigator at the Minneapolis VA Center for Care Delivery and Outcomes Research, will speak on geographic neighborhoods as drivers of lung disparities.

Meredith C. McCormack, MD, MHS, professor of medicine and director of the Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine Division of Johns Hopkins Medicine, will speak on the role of race-neutral spirometric equations in lung health equity.

Joe Zein, MD, PhD, MBA, professor and pulmonary/critical care physician at Mayo Clinic, Phoenix/Scottsdale, will speak on the role of sex, gender, and hormones in lung health.

Dr. DeMeo will speak on the promise of applying omics, particularly epigenetics and the concept of epigenetic plasticity, in relation to social determinants of lung health — how lived experiences are embedded in biology and influence patients’ molecular pathways, as well as prospective strategies to address harmful impacts.

“That is exciting, because we can’t change our genome, but we can influence the epigenome, and we can use research to understand the ways in which environments impact the epigenome and try to dig into how to reverse these features,” Dr. DeMeo said. “Our use of omics should complement — not replace — efforts to address the upstream social and structural conditions that may drive health disparities, so I plan to talk about how we can integrate omics into what we will learn from the other speakers about social determinants of health.”

Bonnie Patchen, PhD, RD, research fellow at Brigham and Women’s Hospital with expertise in precision nutrition, joins Drs. DeMeo and Zein as chairs of the symposium.

“Our vision for this session is to both focus a lens on particular social determinants and particular biomarkers, and to identify opportunities for research and policy to synergize toward improving global health,” Dr. DeMeo said.