Government and Regulations
Diagnosis and Management of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: Putting Guidelines into Practice
Fed Pract. 2008;25(suppl 1):1-25.
Author and Disclosure Information
Michael R. Littner, MD, Amir Sharafkhaneh, MD, PhD, Charlie Lan, DO, Sheila Goodnight-White, MD, Nicola Hanania, MD, Nicholas J. Gross, MD, PhD, Claudia G. Cote, MD, Bartolome Celli, MD, Ryland P. Byrd, Jr., MD, Jayant B. Mehta, MD, Thomas M. Roy, MD, Mark B. Stephens, MD, MS, and Kenneth S. Yew, MD
Dr. Littner is the chief of the pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine departments at the Sepulveda campus of the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, Los Angeles, CA and a professor of medicine at David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles. He also served as co-chair of the VA/DoD COPD Guideline Update Working Group. Dr. Sharafkhaneh and Dr. Lan are both assistant professors of medicine, Dr. Goodnight-White is a professor of medicine, and Dr. Hanania is an associate professor of medicine, all at Baylor
College of Medicine, Houston, TX. In addition, Dr. Sharafkhaneh and Dr. Lan are both staff physicians and Dr. Goodnight-White is the chief of the pulmonary and critical section, all at the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center, Houston, TX. Dr. Gross is a volunteer attending physician at the Edward Hines, Jr. VA Hospital in Hines, IL; a professor emeritus at Stritch-Loyola School of Medicine, Maywood, IL; and a fellow of the American College of Chest Physicians. Dr. Cote is an associate professor at the University of South Florida College of Medicine, Tampa and a staff physician in the pulmonary and critical care sections of the Bay Pines VA Healthcare System, Bay Pines, FL. Dr. Celli is a professor of medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine and the chief of the pulmonary and critical care sections of St. Elizabeth's Medical Center, both in Boston, MA. In addition, Dr. Cote and Dr. Celli are both fellows of the American College of Chest Physicians. Dr. Byrd and Dr. Mehta are professors of medicine and Dr. Roy is a professor of medicine and the division chief, all in the division of pulmonary diseases and critical care medicine at James H. Quillen College of Medicine, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City. In addition, Dr. Byrd is the section chief and Dr. Roy is a staff physician, both in the pulmonary section of the James H. Quillen VA Medical Center, Mountain Home, TN. Dr. Stephens is an associate professor of family medicine and Dr. Yew is an assistant professor of family medicine, both at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, MD.
This supplement to Federal Practitioner on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), sponsored by a grant from Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Pfizer Inc, was developed with the aim of helping primary care providers in federal practice (chiefly, within the health care systems of the VA and DoD) make sense of and
apply evidence-based recommendations for diagnosing and managing COPD. It is our hope that, after reading this supplement, you will be able to:
• Identify patients at risk for COPD and recognize the disease in its early stages.
• Confirm a suspected COPD diagnosis and assess disease severity using spirometry and other appropriate measures.
• Effectively apply the "step-up" approach to risk modification and pharmacologic treatment of stable COPD.
• Discuss the multisystem approach to COPD management, including the proper use of oxygen supplementation, pulmonary rehabilitation, lung volume reduction, and lung transplantation.
• Describe measures used to reduce the frequency and severity of acute COPD exacerbations.
• Identify conditions that are associated or commonly coexist with COPD and discuss key points of their management in the setting of COPD.