COPD Alliance Offers Tools, Guidance to Help Clinicians Fight COPD

NORTHBROOK, Ill., Nov. 9, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- As COPD Awareness Month continues throughout November, the COPD Alliance (www.copd.org) again is providing free tools and resources to help clinicians battle COPD. This year the COPD Alliance is also launching the "Destroy the Pack, Don't Look Back" photo contest which is asking people to submit original photos depicting the most creative way to destroy cigarettes, all in an effort to encourage smokers to quit. People can participate in the contest by visiting the COPD Alliance Facebook page at http://bit.ly/UyyP9E.

To view the multimedia assets associated with this release, please click: http://www.multivu.com/mnr/59039-copd-alliance-launches-anti-smoking-social-media-campaign-photo-contest 

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20121109/MM07706-INFO )

An estimated 24 million Americans have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), half of whom remain undiagnosed, and the disease is the third leading cause of death in the United States.

This year the COPD Alliance, in addition to encouraging clinicians to take the four STEPs to become COPD Prepared, will be offering the following free COPD Prepared tools and resources to clinicians, facilities, and organizations committed to battling COPD:

• COPD Alliance-endorsed Population Screener™: The first step clinicians should take in fighting COPD is to use a validated screening tool to identify patients who may be at risk for COPD. Clinicians can download the COPD Alliance-endorsed population screener by visiting www.copd.org. The screener is available in Spanish and English.
   
• COPD Prepared Website Widget—The website widget provides functionality for both clinicians and consumers. On one side, patients can take the COPD Alliance-endorsed Population Screener™ to assess their risk for COPD and find additional information on COPD. The other side of the widget, developed for clinicians, explains the four STEPs to becoming COPD Prepared and provides them with information and tools.
  
  Clinicians, healthcare facilities and others committed to fighting COPD can add the website widget to their own websites, blogs, and other online mediums by inserting simple script, found at http://copd.org/join-cause.
   
• "The Impact of COPD" Graphic: The COPD Alliance has created a graphic, "The Impact of COPD," that visually conveys the health, monetary and societal effects of COPD. Clinicians are encouraged to download the graphic, and place it in their facilities or on their websites as a patient education tool.
   
• COPD Prepared Button—To show their support in the fight against COPD and show they have taken the four STEPs to become COPD Prepared, clinicians, health-care facilities, and organizations can download a COPD Prepared button and place it on their online outlets.

"Last year, we saw great success with the launch our COPD Prepared campaign so we decided to expand on that effort to provide clinicians with additional tools and information," says COPD Alliance immediate past chair Brian Carlin, MD, FCCP. "This year we have also added a social media contest aimed at the general public to help raise the overall awareness of COPD while encouraging smokers to quit."

About COPD

COPD is a common lung disease characterized by dyspnea and wheezing. Patients with COPD have trouble pushing used air out of their lungs, making it difficult to take in healthy new air. COPD includes chronic bronchitis, emphysema, or both. The most common cause of COPD is cigarette smoking, a behavior clinicians can work to prevent and help patients overcome. Genetic factors and environmental and occupational elements may also cause COPD.

About the COPD Alliance

The COPD Alliance is a multisociety alliance of professional organizations and corporations that use a focused awareness and education campaign to bring about significant change in the recognition, diagnosis, and treatment of patients who have COPD, a prevalent but preventable disease. The founding members of the COPD Alliance, which are the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners, American Academy of Physician Assistants, American College of Chest Physicians, American College of Osteopathic Family Physicians, and American College of Osteopathic Internists, and additional members which are the Gerontological Advanced Practice Nurses Association, American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation, National Hispanic Medical Association, National Medical Association, and the National Lung Health Education Program who represent more than 400,000 health-care professionals working in primary or secondary care. The COPD Alliance gratefully recognizes Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and Pfizer Inc. for their support of this initiative. For more information about COPD and the COPD Alliance, visit www.COPD.org.

Media Contact
Josh Reed
Allison+Partners
623.201.5562
[email protected] 

SOURCE COPD Alliance