Clinical Consults in COPD

Target Audience

The educational design of this activity addresses the needs of primary care and pulmonology clinicians who manage patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Program Description

The importance of effective and individualized COPD treatment—often using combinations of different drug classes—to prevent exacerbations cannot be over-emphasized. Physicians often consult with their colleagues to discuss evolving issues surrounding guideline updates, expert consensus, or challenging clinical cases. This 5-episode Phone-a-Friend series features expert faculty asking and answering questions related to the management of COPD. The series will cover a variety of topics, including patient symptom assessment and disease diagnosis; long-term monitoring and exacerbation prevention; updates to guideline-directed care; initial treatment selection, escalation or switching; co-management of comorbid cardiovascular disease; and optimizing collaborative, comprehensive patient care. Each episode will center around a specific patient case.

Educational Objectives 

After completing this activity, the participant should be better able to:

• Evaluate patients with COPD to characterize disease etiotypes, exacerbation risks, and treatment responses
• Describe recent clinical trial data and guideline updates related to triple-combination inhaled therapies for COPD
• Tailor maintenance regimens for patients with COPD to reflect disease severity, treatable traits, exacerbation risks, comorbidities, and patient preferences
• Educate patients with COPD to improve inhaler technique, treatment adherence, and shared decision making