CARD Clinic has grown during the years to integral part of the community
Letter to the Editor,
In the Libby community, the Center for Asbestos Related Disease (CARD) has emerged as a national center in addressing asbestos healthcare and asbestos-health research associated with Libby amphibole asbestos.
CARD is a nonprofit clinic governed by a community-based board of directors. CARD is committed to addressing the nation’s first and only public health emergency resulting from an environmental disaster.
Although healthcare is CARD’s No. 1 priority (more on this topic will be discussed later), CARD serves as the liaison between the Libby community and the asbestos-health research world. It is well known that successful partnerships allow valuable research to be accomplished while also protecting the interest of community members.
It is further recognized in Libby that CARD research is a community project. Research projects are initiated by researchers across the nation, but it is the involvement of patients and other Libby community members who make projects successful. Without community engagement and support, important research about Libby Asbestos would not be making such great progress.
It takes all partners to make it happen, and researchers are extremely impressed and appreciative of the dedicated involvement of the Libby community.
More than 5,000 CARD patients have participated in extensive exposure and health histories, symptoms questionnaires, pulmonary-function testing and radiographic assessments. Of these, more than 2,000 people have given informed consent to use this data for research purposes.
Combined with exposure data, this clinical information is of great value for many possible research activities, including understanding mechanisms of disease for development of new treatments for physical and mental health, and development of models of exposure dose-response relationships to facilitate improved public health recommendations on behalf of Libby and other asbestos contaminated sites nationwide.
CARD plays a key role in advocating advancement of science related to asbestos-health research and maintains key relationships with governmental agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, Environmental Protection Agency, National Institutes of Health, and National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, as well as academic institutions including the University of Cincinnati, Idaho State University, Kent State, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, University of Montana, Montana State University, National Jewish Medical Center, University of New York at Buffalo and New York University.
— Dusti Thompson
The CARD Clinic