The endobronchial ultrasound bronchoscopy otherwise known as EBUS is a device that allows doctors to perform more accurate diagnoses of lung disease.
The minimally invasive procedure can now be done at Galesburg Cottage Hospital despite the fact that it’s only available in 30% of hospitals in the country.
Not only can it make lung disease detection easier but also it can find early signs of disease in ways that traditional scanning doesn’t allow.
Cottage’s Director of Marketing and Public Relations Eileen Inness says the EBUS also has real time imagining of even peripheral parts of the lungs.
“And that’s really important when you’re dealing with lung cancer,” Inness says. “Because with any cancer, what’s the key? Early diagnosis. So the smaller the nodule the earlier the diagnosis and that’s available to us.”
Dr. Massood Molavi was the impetus behind the EBUS purchase.
Molavi is the only Cottage doctor certified to use the device and has six years experience with EBUS.
Acquiring equipment like EBUS was crucial to Molavi when interviewing to come to Cottage.
“He said, ‘I could bring so much to your talent you’ve never seen before and if you hire me, we’ll need to explore avenues to purchase some of this equipment’ and so we have,” Inness says.
EBUS can also perform biopsies without requiring patients to stay overnight.
