Professor Mike Roberts, programme lead for the National COPD Audit Programme at the RCP welcomes the latest findings for the diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), published today in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine UK:
We welcome these latest findings which raise serious concerns about delayed diagnosis of patients with COPD. A national 10 year initiative in Finland, which combined audit data collection with a sustained education and training initiative for primary care staff, demonstrated a major increase in early diagnosis of COPD together with better management, so reducing hospital admissions. The National COPD Audit Programme for England and Wales, which began data collection on 1 February 2014, aims to do exactly the same, linking large scale data collection to better diagnosis and care in the biggest-ever COPD clinical improvement programme.
- The full article and comment can be downloaded via The Lancet.
- For questions about The Lancet Respiratory Medicine or to access the abstract of the paper, please contact the media manager of The Lancet publications.
- View further information about the National COPD Audit Programme.