A Collaborative Approach to Earlier Lung Cancer Diagnosis

At the core of the Hancock Health Lung Nodule Program is a simple philosophy: every patient deserves the earliest possible diagnosis and the opportunity to receive the right treatment in the community they call home.

Our Lung Nodule Program specializes in the evaluation and diagnosis of pulmonary nodules using advanced technologies, including robotic bronchoscopy, endobronchial ultrasound (EBUS), and comprehensive multidisciplinary review. Our mission is to provide rapid, accurate diagnoses while minimizing delays that can impact patient outcomes.

We recognize that exceptional cancer care depends on collaboration. Rather than replacing established oncology programs, our goal is to complement them. By identifying lung cancers at their earliest and most curable stages, we provide patients with a definitive diagnosis and complete staging before seamlessly transitioning them back to their local oncology and surgical teams for treatment.

This collaborative model allows patients to benefit from advanced diagnostic expertise while maintaining continuity of care within their trusted healthcare system. It also enables our partner organizations to retain their oncology, surgical, radiation oncology, and medical oncology services while ensuring patients have timely access to specialized diagnostic procedures that may not be readily available in every community.

Our commitment extends beyond performing procedures. We believe in open communication, rapid reporting, multidisciplinary collaboration, and coordinated patient navigation. Every referral is treated as a partnership, with the shared objective of delivering the highest quality care while preserving the relationship between patients and their hometown physicians.

Together, we can reduce delays in diagnosis, increase the detection of early-stage lung cancer, expand access to advanced pulmonary diagnostics, and ultimately improve survival for patients throughout our region. Because the best cancer programs are built not by competing with one another—but by working together to ensure every patient receives the right care, at the right time, in the right place.

Hancock Health’s Director of Pulmonary Critical Care Dr. Sumit Chawla is a nationally recognized pulmonary and critical care specialist and leads our Lung Nodule Program. He is passionate about improving patient care through leadership, early disease detection, and the creation of world-class clinical programs