Two doctors here have launched a Lung Cancer Clinic at Spokane-based Rockwood Clinic PS to streamline diagnosis and care for lung cancer patients.

The physicians, Dr. Jay Wittenkeller, a medical oncologist who practices at Rockwood Clinic, and Dr. Gregory Loewen, a pulmonologist at Spokane Respiratory Consultants PS, have collaborated with Rockwood to start the clinic, which operates for a half-day every other week at Rockwood's downtown Cancer Treatment Center, at 910 W. Fifth.

The clinic hopes to consult with patients when they are first diagnosed, or need to be diagnosed, to help streamline services and reduce the time between diagnosis and the beginning of treatment, Wittenkeller says.

"One of the long-term benefits is that the time it takes to figure out what the patient has and how to treat them would be shorter," he says.

To ensure progress for patients, the clinic hopes to follow up with them as they continue treatment, he says.

Though the clinic currently includes only the two founding doctors, Wittenkeller says he and Loewen hope to expand the venture into a multidisciplinary clinic to help patients who have lung cancer or are suspected to have the disease get a complete diagnosis and collaborative treatment plan.

The goal is to include an evaluation of a patient's care professionals in other specialties, such as a radiation oncologist and a thoracic surgeon, who have a strong interest in the treatment of lung cancer, Wittenkeller says.

In addition to the two doctors, the clinic has several support staff members, including a nurse and two medical assistants, he says. A social worker and counselor are available for patients as needed.

Wittenkeller has been providing care at Rockwood Clinic for 12 years. In addition to practicing at Spokane Respiratory Consultants, Loewen is the program director for the thoracic section of the Providence Sacred Heart Cancer Center here.

When Loewen moved to Spokane a little more than two years ago, the two physicians informally began discussing opening a lung cancer clinic, Wittenkeller says. A few months ago, they decided to move forward with the idea, and launched the clinic at the end of January.

"We have a common goal to try and establish a lung clinic that is going to be beneficial to the medical community and to the overall community," he says.