The strength, courage, and perseverance of my patients with interstitial lung disease is truly inspiring and pushes me every day to improve education and provide as much support as possible.
Dr. Veronica Marcoux’s personal experience with lung disease fuelled her passion to understand what makes the lungs work well early on in life. As a child with asthma, she remembers visiting allergy specialists, doctors and attending Lung Sask’s asthma camps. “When I first started attending asthma camp, I’m fairly sure my asthma was not well controlled, and it was nice to have a large education component to the camp on proper inhaler use, and regaining control of asthma instead of letting it limit my day to day life.”
Years later she is no longer the patient and is now a respirologist and researcher. Specializing in interstitial lung disease (ILD), an umbrella term for a large group of disorders including idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) that cause scarring (fibrosis) of the lungs, Dr. Marcoux has an important role leading Saskatchewan’s first of a kind ILD clinic located in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
This clinic is one of the participating sites in the Canadian Registry for Pulmonary Fibrosis (CARE-PF), a database that is being used to further research and gain a better understanding of these diseases. Through research, it is her hope that as there is a better understanding of these diseases in order to offer more effective treatments and have a positive impact on patient care and outcomes.
Dr. Marcoux works tirelessly to raise awareness about lung disease, specifically ILD and IPF and is motivated by her patients. “The strength, courage and perseverance of my patients with interstitial lung disease in the face of a difficult diagnosis is truly inspiring and pushes me every day in the effort to improve education around these diseases and to provide these patients with as much support as possible.”
Invested in her research, Dr. Marcoux is hopeful that her work will lead to significant developments allowing Saskatchewan residents to breathe easier. “This is an exciting era in the field of interstitial lung disease with major advances over the last several years, however, there is much more to be accomplished in the future. Ongoing research and your support are crucial to advancements in the field of interstitial lung disease.”
If you or a loved one has been diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis, join our online support group today!
