For referring doctors
Fast assessment and clear feedback.
Practical information for you who refer: what we assess, how to refer, the current waiting time, and how we keep you updated with clinic letters and a direct collegial line.
Refer for
What we assess and treat.
Walsted Lungeklinik is a specialist practice in pulmonary medicine, with particular expertise in exercise-related breathlessness (not least EILO), unexplained breathlessness, chronic cough and respiratory problems in athletes — alongside asthma and airway allergy, including allergen immunotherapy. The clinic continues Backers Klinik.
Subsidised (group 1) visits require a referral from the patient's GP; group 2, insurance and self-paying patients can be seen without one. With free choice of specialist, the patient can choose the clinic regardless of region and books the appointment themselves; the clinic collects the referral.
The clinic assesses adults and adolescents; referral of patients under 18 requires prior agreement with the clinic. Acute conditions and suspected cancer (cancer pathway) are referred via the usual acute or cancer-pathway routes.
- Asthma: assessment and treatment, including systematic re-evaluation of difficult-to-control asthma (adherence, inhaler technique, comorbidity, differential diagnoses). Where biologic therapy is indicated, the patient is referred on to a hospital department, as the treatment is hospital medicine (sygehusmedicin).
- Exercise-related breathlessness and EILO: a particular area of expertise
- Chronic cough lasting more than eight weeks
- Unexplained breathlessness: differential diagnosis
- Breathlessness in athletes and active people, incl. anti-doping/TUE advice
- Airway allergy and allergen immunotherapy (SCIT/SLIT)
- Recurrent or prolonged lower respiratory infections (where an underlying lung disease is suspected)
What the clinic does not provide
- Sleep-related breathing disorders (sleep apnoea, CPAP): sleep apnoea is considered as a comorbidity in difficult-to-control asthma, but is not investigated or treated at the clinic
- Home oxygen therapy
- Pulmonary rehabilitation
- Bronchoscopy and invasive diagnostics
- Follow-up during ongoing hospital treatment for lung cancer or interstitial lung disease
These are referred to a hospital department, a municipal programme or the relevant specialist practice. You are welcome to call if you are in doubt about where a patient belongs.
Diagnostics
Investigations in the clinic.
The work-up is tailored to the clinical question and can be completed in a single, focused course.
- Lung function / spirometry
- With reversibility test — central to diagnosing and following asthma.
- Mannitol provocation
- Indirect bronchial provocation that demonstrates bronchial hyperresponsiveness. Practical in the outpatient setting.
- Methacholine provocation
- Direct bronchial provocation. High sensitivity, so a negative test largely rules out current asthma, provided the patient has had symptoms in the days around the test and has kept the agreed medication pause; a positive test is less specific and is interpreted together with the clinical picture. In athletes the test performs markedly less well, so exercise-related symptoms are assessed with an indirect test.
- EVH (eucapnic voluntary hyperventilation)
- One of the two indirect challenge tests (alongside the exercise challenge); the IOC recommends indirect over direct provocation when assessing exercise-induced asthma in elite athletes.
- Exercise challenge (cycle ergometer)
- A standardised exercise challenge on a cycle ergometer to assess exercise-related airway symptoms. It reproduces the patient's own trigger, and the choice between an exercise challenge and EVH depends on the clinical question and the patient.
- Impulse oscillometry (IOS)
- Resistance measurement during tidal breathing, without a forced manoeuvre. Useful where cooperation is limited and as a supplement to spirometry.
- FeNO
- Measurement of exhaled nitric oxide as a marker of eosinophilic airway inflammation.
- Allergy testing (skin-prick test and specific IgE)
- Identification of relevant inhalant and insect-venom allergens by skin-prick test (SPT) in the clinic and, where indicated, specific IgE analysed at a laboratory.
- Allergen immunotherapy (SCIT/SLIT)
- Immunotherapy for airway allergy and insect-venom allergy, carried out by the clinic's doctor and experienced nurses.
- EILO assessment
- Assessment and advice by a specialist with substantial personal experience with continuous laryngoscopy during exercise (CLE) and co-authorship of the joint statement on inducible laryngeal obstruction from the European Respiratory Society (ERS) and the European Laryngological Society (ELS). The clinic will establish CLE (the reference test for EILO) in the near future. EILO: background and assessment
Where further work-up is needed — for example imaging, or diffusing capacity and total lung capacity (diffusion/TLC) — it is arranged individually via an external laboratory.
How to refer
From referral to appointment.
The clinic accepts referrals and sees patients on Wednesdays.
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Send an electronic referral
Send the referral from your own practice system via DNHF (Den Nationale Henvisningsformidling), marked with the clinic's provider number (see the referral details on the right). If in doubt whether the referral has arrived, call the clinic during phone hours.
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Include the relevant information
Current medication, relevant earlier investigations (lung function, imaging, blood tests) and your clinical question or suspicion.
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The patient books the appointment
The patient contacts the clinic and books the appointment in the patient portal; the clinic then collects the referral from the national referral service. The patient should not wait to be contacted.
The patient portal is not open yet; until then, patients book by phone.
Referral details
- Provider number
- Location number
- Current waiting time
- …
- New patients
We prioritise a short time to assessment. The current waiting time is kept up to date here.
Opening hours and waiting time are also published on sundhed.dk.
Letters & collegial contact
Clear feedback and a direct line.
You receive a clear clinic letter shortly after the visit, with the diagnosis, the plan and concrete recommendations for continued treatment in general practice.
Do you need to discuss a patient, before or after referral? You are always welcome to contact the specialist directly for a collegial conversation.
Collegial contact
- Phone (phone hours)
Call during phone hours and ask for a collegial conversation with the specialist. Please do not send identifiable patient data (CPR, diagnoses) by ordinary email. Use the electronic referral or the phone.
Looking for patient information?
This page is for professionals. Your patient can read about the clinic, services and practical details on the rest of the site.