October 2016

Last week, NHLBI released the next iteration of a COPD National Action Plan.  The draft action plan is open for public review and comment.

The action plan includes five major areas of activity:

• Goal 1: Empower people with COPD, their families, and caregivers to recognize and reduce the burden of COPD.
• Goal 2: Improve the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and management of COPD by promoting and sustaining the education and training of health care professionals.
• Goal 3: Collect, analyze, disseminate, and report COPD-related public health data that drive change and track progress.
• Goal 4: Increase and sustain research to better understand the prevention, pathogenesis, diagnosis, treatment, and management of COPD.
• Goal 5: Translate national policy, educational, and program recommendations into legislative, research, and public health care actions.

The COPD National Action Plan was a product of public input from a COPD Town Hall meeting held early in 2016 and from subsequent input from the public, patient and provider community.  The ATS has played an active role in the document development through our participation in the COPD Town Hall meeting and comments are earlier drafts of the plan.  The deadline for public comments is Oct. 28.