Wellstar Partners with Morehouse School of Medicine to Support At-Risk Populations

Whether you’re running a marathon or simply running errands, having healthy lungs helps you to live comfortably and do the activities you enjoy.

Lung health is an important part of overall wellness. It’s best to prevent health issues before they start, and Wellstar experts will partner with you to personalize a plan to keep your lungs healthy. 

Book an appointment online to check in with a clinician about your lung health and follow these tips to breathe a little easier.

Don’t smoke or vape

If you are a smoker, keep in mind that there are both short-term and long-term benefits to quitting. One to nine months after the last cigarette, your shortness of breath should decrease. Within 10 years of quitting, a former smoker's risk of developing lung cancer is 30% to 50% below that of a person who continues to smoke.

Also, if you don’t smoke, do not pick up the habit. Nicotine is highly addictive, even more so than many other drugs including narcotic opiates, according to Wellstar Pulmonologist Dr. Hitendra Patel.

Dr. Patel said that vaping is gaining popularity, especially among younger people. However, vaping irritates a person’s airways and increases their risk of asthma.

“Nothing but air should go in and out of the lungs,” Dr. Patel said. “Any other chemical or substance, or inhalation of smoke of any kind, is going to be detrimental and harmful.”

Wellstar Primary Care Physician Dr. Jignesh Dholaria said misinformation about vaping is common.

“People have the notion that vaping is somehow safer and that it doesn’t have the same chemicals that cigarettes do,” Dr. Dholaria said. “We’re seeing a lot more harmful effects from vaping just because we don’t always know all the chemicals that are in these vapes. That has caused a lot more lung-related injuries.”

Get your exercise and sleep

While staying active is a critical component of overall wellness, it’s especially important to keep your lungs in top shape.

“As you’re breathing in and out, getting rid of carbon dioxide and inhaling more oxygen, that helps your tissues, which helps you feel better overall,” Dr. Dholaria said.

Even if it is raining—or if pollutants are especially high that day and you’re worried about lung irritation—there are ways to get your steps in. Dr. Patel recommends going to an air-conditioned shopping mall or store to get some exercise if being outside is not an option.

“Continuing to exercise to the fullest of your body’s ability is an important step of maintaining whatever lung health you have,” Dr. Patel said. “If you start with healthy lungs, staying on an exercise program and regimen is vital.”

Balance that exercise with some rest, too. Dr. Patel, who is also the medical director of the Wellstar sleep program, said being well-rested can ward off sickness, including some respiratory illnesses.

“If you don’t sleep well, that means your immune system is not going to function as well as it should,” he said.

Try breathing exercises

In addition to getting your sleep, some relaxation and breathing techniques can have benefits for both mental wellness and lung health. 

Dr. Patel recommends “4-7-8 breathing,” which involves inhaling for four seconds, holding your breath for seven seconds and then exhaling for eight seconds.

Benefits of breathing exercises may include lower stress and anxiety levels, lower blood pressure and better sleep.

Manage your asthma

If you have asthma, know your lungs and avoid the environmental triggers that cause the condition to flare up, Dr. Patel said. Common triggers include pet dander, seasonal changes, allergens like perfume and smoke inhalation. 

Asthma can also run in families, although there is often no specific reason why a person develops asthma, Dr. Patel said.

“Sometimes people underestimate how bad asthma can be,” Dr. Patel said.

If you have asthma, see your primary care physician to monitor your lung health. Pulmonologists specialize in caring for people’s lungs, and they often collaborate with primary care clinicians to create personalized plans to manage their patients’ asthma.

Ask your care team about screenings

Early detection is key in cancer treatment, but many lung cancers present in later stages, Dr. Patel said.

“In that area in the middle of the lungs and the middle of the chest, there are no pain fibers or pain sensors in there,” Dr. Patel said. “If a tumor occurs there, patients don’t know it. They don’t feel it, and it doesn’t hurt them.”

Lung cancer is sometimes found when it spreads and causes complications, Dr. Patel said.

If you are at increased risk for developing lung cancer, ask your care team about screenings. You should consider screenings if you are a current or past smoker. Visit our lung cancer screening page to learn more about if screening, which involves low-dose CT scans, could benefit you. To keep up with your lung health, find a Wellstar physician near you.

NEW YORK and ATLANTA, Oct. 21, 2025 – CLEAR (NYSE: YOU), the secure identity company, and Wellstar Health System (“Wellstar”), are dramatically improving the patient experience and saving hundreds of staff hours through a partnership that leverages CLEAR’s identity platform, CLEAR1. Findings from a joint case study released today highlight how health systems nationwide can use technology to make the patient experience faster and easier by reimagining one of the most visible pain points in the care journey: Patient Check In.

Despite widespread investment in digital tools, many check-ins still depend on manual lookups, paper forms, and repetitive data entry—creating friction for both patients and staff. Wellstar has been at the forefront of innovation as the first health system to launch CLEAR1 for check-in, which is integrated with Epic Welcome to enable seamless deployment. With this industry-leading solution, patients can quickly and easily check in for their appointments with a quick selfie at a kiosk or on a handheld tablet.

Since the initial launch at Avalon Health Park in May 2024, Wellstar has seen a dramatic and measurable impact on both experience and operational efficiency, with plans to expand to more than 150 locations across its system. The integration is live at Wellstar North Fulton Medical Center, the first hospital in the U.S. to leverage CLEAR1 for patient check-ins, and at five Wellstar outpatient facilities. Wellstar plans to roll out additional use cases with CLEAR1, including patient MyChart account creation and recovery, workforce account recovery, and online scheduling.

“CLEAR’s focus is on making everyday experiences both safer and easier, and our work with Wellstar is helping pave the way for the future of modern patient experiences," said Caryn Seidman Becker, CEO of CLEAR. “We are excited about the growth opportunities ahead and the many ways we can support health systems to improve patient and staff experiences and create a more integrated healthcare future.”

“The results of the study speak for themselves. By leveraging CLEAR1’s technology we introduced a modern, digital check-in experience that saves patients and team members time, reduces administrative costs, and streamlines the check-in process for everyone,” said Dr. Hank Capps, EVP and Chief Information and Digital Officer for Wellstar Health System and President of Catalyst by Wellstar. “Wellstar partnered with CLEAR because we are committed to investing in technologies that elevate the patient experience, alleviate the stress on staff, and reduce friction across every part of the patient journey.”

Key outcomes achieved since launching CLEAR1 for check-in include:

• Improved Patient Experience – Digital check-in adoption increased from 2 to 10 percent, with strong engagement among patients 45 and older. 73 percent of patients who used CLEAR1’s digital check-in technology reported that they would use it again.
• Operational Efficiency – In just six months, CLEAR1-enabled check-ins freed up more than 1,500 hours of staff time, allowing teams to focus on higher-value tasks such as assisting patients with complex problems.
• Reduction in Duplicate Records & Cost Savings – By linking appointments to a verified identity, Wellstar has been able to uncover and resolve duplicate patient records before visits, reducing costly administrative rework and minimizing claim complications. Collectively, these improvements are projected to deliver $2 million in savings for every 25,000 patients verified through CLEAR1.

The case study is available here.

About CLEAR
CLEAR's mission is to strengthen security and create frictionless experiences. With over 33 million Members and a growing network of partners across the world, CLEAR's secure identity platform is transforming the way people live, work, and travel. Whether you are traveling, at the stadium, or on your phone, CLEAR connects you to the things that make you, you—making everyday experiences easier, more secure, and friction-free. CLEAR is committed to privacy done right. Members are always in control of their own information, and we do not sell biometric or sensitive personal data. For more information, visit clearme.com.

About Wellstar Health System
Wellstar personalizes the patient experience. We call it PeopleCare and it's only possible thanks to our 33,000 team members who provide expert compassionate care for every stage of life. PeopleCare also means we serve our communities as a non-profit health system, providing more than $1 billion annually in charity care and community programs, and operating the largest integrated trauma network in the State of Georgia. We embrace innovation and technology, nurture early-stage companies through our venture firm Catalyst by Wellstar, and train future generations of caregivers with academic institutions including the Medical College of Georgia. Wellstar honors every voice and is one of the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For. To learn more, visit Wellstar.org.