COPD

Trying to Get a Handle on COPD

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is an extremely difficult condition to regulate for patients and doctors alike. Symptoms come and go, symptoms come and stay. One thing about the symptoms is that they are very unpredictable and are not easily monitored in a consistent manner.

Exacerbations of the patient’s symptoms are usually only monitored by the patient and then notified to the doctor as and when needed. This means that the doctor has no complete record of the symptoms and their occurrences. This can make the adjustment of medication quite difficult.

A scientific team from various organizations across the world have come up with a device that will help to monitor a patient with a minimum of disruption to the patient’s life.

The device is called The EXAcerbations of Chronic Pulmonary Disease Tool (EXACT). It is a digital daily diary. In essence, it is a questionnaire on a device like a smart phone, which collects the answers to 14 standard questions. The patient completes the questionnaire once a day in the evening. The data can then be reviewed by the doctor so that they can get a more complete picture.

Dr Leidy, of the scientific team states,

“It provides a standardized method for evaluating the treatment benefit of COPD therapies and provides important, quantitative information about patients’ day-to-day experience with COPD.”

The device is still undergoing clinical trials in several countries but the scientists involved hope that this device will help to provide doctors with more reliable and consistent data so that they are able to treat their patients more effectively. Read more here.

Resources:

EXACT-PRO Initiative

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Blogs:

COPD Guidelines Tool 1.0

Disease and Therapy Review: Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)