Patient and Clinician Characteristics Associated with Adherence. A Cohort Study of Veterans with Incidental Pulmonary Nodules.

Rationale: Many patients are diagnosed with small pulmonary nodules for which professional societies recommend subsequent imaging surveillance. Adherence to these guidelines involves many steps from both clinicians and patients but has not been well studied.

Objectives: In a health care setting with a nodule tracking system, we evaluated the association of communication processes and distress with patient and clinician adherence to recommended follow up and Fleischner Society guidelines, respectively.