Navigating To Earlier Detection Of Lung Cancer

Building on the success of our Lung Cancer Screening program, the McLeod Health team has been detecting lung cancer earlier and saving lives through low-dose CT scans for more than seven years. Since that time the cancer team has expanded the program to include four dedicated nurse navigators, a lung nodule clinic and patient conferences with multiple specialists.

Now, the addition of innovative early detection technology is enabling the team to precisely track and diagnose lung cancer in its earliest stages with electromagnetic navigation. This new technology revolutionizes the speed and accuracy with which lung cancer can be diagnosed, allowing for treatment to begin sooner.

Offered at McLeod Regional Medical Center and McLeod Health Seacoast, the SPiN Thoracic Navigation System provides electromagnetic navigation and guidance to distant regions of the lungs in a minimally invasive outpatient procedure, enabling McLeod Health Pulmonologists to locate, biopsy and plan treatment for lung nodules that were previously difficult to access with traditional technology. The McLeod team is utilizing the system to act sooner and not wait for nodules to grow before they are biopsied.

Dr. Vinod K. Jona joined the medical staff of McLeod Health in 2001 and has been instrumental in the expansion of pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine programs. He most recently served as Chief of the Medical Staff for McLeod Regional Medical Center.

Additionally, Dr. Jona serves as Medical Director of the McLeod Healthy Lungs Initiative Program and the Pulmonary Rehabilitation Committee. He is also a member of the Medical Staff Executive Committee, Quality Operations Committee and the McLeod Physician Associates Steering Board Committee.

Board certified in Internal Medicine, Pulmonary Disease and Sleep Medicine, Dr. Jona obtained his medical degree at Kakatiya Medical College in Warangal, India. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine at Jacobi Medical Center of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine Yeshiva University, in Bronx, New York, and a fellowship in Pulmonary Disease at Albert Einstein Health Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Dr. Jona cares for patients at McLeod Pulmonary and Critical Care Associates.