Integrating COPD care in Italy

Excerpt

Doctors are not short of advice about how to manage their patients. In the case of COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) there are a wealth of guidelines, strategies and position papers synthesising an increasing body of data from observational studies and clinical trials into schemes that should help the doctor care for their COPD patients more effectively. In recent years particular attention has been paid to the views of the joint ERS/ATS COPD guidelines [1] and the regularly updated recommendations of the Global initiative for chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) [2]. Now a new Italian document has been developed representing the combined efforts of three key Italian respiratory societies AIMAR, AIPO, SIMeR and the society of General Practice, SIMG, whose combined expertise covers almost all those who offer care to the COPD patient. So what does this new guidance tell us and does it add to what we have heard already? …