How to Screen for Heat-Related Illness Risks, with Janelle Bludorn, MS, PA-C

The increasing rate of heat stress and its resulting impact on weather-associated deaths around the world is viewed as a topic of some significance during the summer months. In fact, the total annual heat-related deaths in the US rose by over 40% from 2021 – 2023, and many point to climate change as a significant exacerbating factor.

In the latest episode of Lungcast, heat-associated illnesses such as strokes and respiratory exacerbations were discussed by host Albert Rizzo, MD, chief medical officer of the American Lung Association (ALA), and this week’s guest, Janelle Bludorn, MS, PA-C, assistant professor in the department of family medicine and community health at Duke University School of Medicine.

Bludorn and Rizzo spoke on the respiratory effects of extreme heat, climate change’s adverse impact, commonly prescribed medicines, and the most frequent manifestations of heat-related illness present in emergency departments. In the episode clip posted above, Bludhorn highlighted how to screen for various risks, and the respiratory consequences of heat.

“There's an article that came out in 2022 in the New England Journal of Medicine by Sorensen and colleagues, and it was called treatment and prevention of heat related illness,” Bludhorn said. “I bring this up because it covers screening and prevention for heat related illness really quite well. What they recommend is that clinicians should, for everybody before the hot season begins where they live, be screening all patients for their risk of heat related illness, and then be able to identify heat vulnerable individuals.”

Bludhorn added that clinicians should assess individual factors in their patients to understand susceptibility to heat-related illness, looking at age, whether that patient has any coexisting conditions in such areas as the lungs or kidneys, if patients are pregnant, if they utilize certain medications, whether they have like cognitive impairments or disabilities, whether they have social isolation or immobility, and what type of weather exists in the patient’s place of residence.

Lungcast is a monthly respiratory news podcast series hosted by Albert Rizzo, MD, chief medical officer of the ALA, and produced by HCPLive.

Subscribe to Lungcast on Spotify here, or listen to the episode below.