| Chair | Catherine Chen, MD, MS | Dallas, TX |
| Vice Chair | Robin L. Gross, MD | Washington, DC |
| Committee Member | Amanda M. Jones, MSN | Bethesda, MD |
| Committee Member | Cindy K. Jon, MD | Houston, TX |
| Committee Member | Doranne M. Donesky, ATSF, PhD, ANP-BC | Napa, CA |
| Committee Member | Elif Isik, PhD | Denton, TX |
| Committee Member - PAR Representative | Joyce A. Kullman, BS | Kansas City, MO |
| Committee Member | Kaharu Sumino, ATSF, MD, MPH | Saint Louis, MO |
| Committee Member | Karen Y. Capusan, CPNP | New Hyde Park, NY |
| Committee Member | Matthew S. Wong, DO, MPH | Los Angeles, CA |
| Committee Member | Priscilla De La Cruz, MD | Albuquerque, NM |
| Committee Member - PAR Representative | Steve Park | |
| Committee Member | Tiffany L. Dumont, DO | Pittsburgh, PA |
| Committee Member | Vincent Chan, MD, MS | Norfolk, Virginia |
| Observer - Senior Advisor | Marianna M. Sockrider, ATSF, MD, DrPH | Houston, TX |
The Patient and Family Education Committee (PFEC) provides oversight for the design, implementation, and evaluation of the Society’s patient, family and lay public‐oriented educational activities and products, including informational brochures and website materials.
The Committee performs ongoing assessments of ATS patient/public educational resources to assure that they are relevant, current, health literate, and cost‐effective. Based on these assessments, the Committee oversees the periodic development and modification of the Society's educational portfolio for patients and families and conducts periodic strategic planning aimed at continued improvement. It develops educational strategies to accelerate the translation of scientific discovery and knowledge to improve patient and family knowledge and skill about the prevention and treatment of pulmonary disease, critical illness, and sleep disorders. PFEC focuses on areas that improve clinician knowledge and attitudes for enhancing communication with patients and families, including topics such as health literacy, cultural competence, and use of patient and family educational materials in clinical practice. In addition, the Committee also explores ways to ensure that the patient and family perspective is incorporated into educational activities for ATS members and other professionals in the fields of pulmonary, critical care and sleep.
The committee works closely with the Public Advisory Roundtable (PAR) to develop collaborative goals regarding patient and family education. It coordinates its efforts, whenever appropriate, with multiple other committees and staff including the Steering Committee on Advancement and Learning (SCALe), Documents Development and Implementation Committee (DDIC), Drug/Device Discovery and Development Committee (DDDD), Health Equity and Diversity Committee, the Associate Medical Editor for Patient Education, and the ATS Website team.
The committee provides expert guidance to existing and future public health initiatives to ensure their development, review and output is accurate, consistent with current public health and patient/family education standards and coordinated with relevant outside organizations or teams.
Benchmarks, 2026-2027:
- Serve as a resource to ATS vaccine-oriented activities throughout the Society by providing expertise in the design, review, publication, dissemination and use of patient-centered materials for clinicians, patients and the public.
- Continue to provide expertise in the design, peer review and content expertise of existing and new medically oriented materials. These materials are intended for use by clinicians in interactions with patients, families and the public and are accessible in the journals, the website and used in social media postings.
- Facilitate awareness of the Patient Education Manual and Checklist to Assemblies, Committees and other stakeholders interested in patient education.
- Establish and convene a new strategic planning subcommittee of PFEC to discuss and provide recommendations about a broad range of issues in patient education, eg enhanced collaboration with ATS Scholar, meeting PAR needs, leveraging new formats to meet patients where they are. Non-PFEC stakeholders will be invited to participate as appropriate to ensure a broad perspective of opinions is obtained.
- Develop a sustainable and effective strategy to utilize social media to promote educational materials for patients and families.
- Explore ATS NOW to devise a plan to see how to incorporate into Patient and Family Education Committee's strategic plan.
