How you might use the COPD National Action Plan

To achieve the goals of the COPD National Action Plan, it is important that all members of the COPD community get involved. The list of groups below can help you identify the Action Plan goals most relevent to you.

Click on the group you identify with to learn more:

Health Professionals


Woman and son

Goal 1: Build awareness

Empower people with COPD, their families , and caregivers to recognize and reduce the burden of COPD.

Opportunities for engagement

  • Share COPD risk assessment tools and educational materials with your audiences
  • Work with local stakeholders, partners, and communities to raise awareness in areas with high rates of COPD
  • Use local events, workplace wellness programs, media coverage, and health observances as opportunities to educate audiences about COPD
  • Develop train-the-trainer programs and distribute educational materials at state and federal levels
  • Identify and engage new partners who can address COPD, especially those who reach heavily affected populations

Woman and doctor

Goal 2: Improve COPD care

Improve the diagnosis, prevention, treatment, and management of COPD by improving the quality of care delivered across the healthcare continuum.

Opportunities for engagement

  • Promote COPD assessment and treatment guidelines to healthcare professionals
  • Incorporate COPD detection, care, and treatment recommendations into clinical settings
  • Increase healthcare professionals' awareness and use of existing COPD training, tools, and model programs
  • Develop culturally and linguistically appropriate patient resources to further COPD education
  • Encourage healthcare professionals to assess patients for COPD — using spirometry when appropriate — and develop personalized COPD management plans

Policymakers

Goal 5: Turn Policy into Action

Translate national policy, educational, and program recommendations into research and public health care actions.

Opportunities for engagement

  • Create quality-control performance metrics for COPD detection, care, and treatment
  • Encourage the adoption and use of performance metrics for COPD detection, care, treatment, and prevention
  • Assess the progress of the COPD National Action Plan's initiatives
  • Share information about the COPD National Action Plan's progress

Policymakers


Woman and doctor

Goal 2: Improve COPD care

Improve the diagnosis, prevention, treatment, and management of COPD by improving the quality of care delivered across the healthcare continuum.

Opportunities for engagement

  • Promote COPD assessment and treatment guidelines to healthcare professionals
  • Incorporate COPD detection, care, and treatment recommendations into clinical settings
  • Increase healthcare professionals' awareness and use of existing COPD training, tools, and model programs
  • Develop culturally and linguistically appropriate patient resources to further COPD education
  • Encourage healthcare professionals to assess patients for COPD — using spirometry when appropriate — and develop personalized COPD management plans

Researcher

Goal 3: Improve data collection and dissemination

Collect, analyze, report, and disseminate COPD-related public health data that drive change and track progress.

Opportunities for engagement

  • Work with the public health authorities to improve the quality of COPD surveillance data  and collect information about health disparities in COPD prevention, diagnosis, care, and treatment
  • Use EHR/PHR technology to assess and evaluate the healthcare system's capacity to monitor and control COPD
  • Promote research that tracks the prevalence and incidence of COPD, including its phenotypes
  • Support surveillance projects and epidemiological investigations to help understand the characteristics and needs of people at risk for and living with COPD
  • Create a publicly accessible database to evaluate and enable predictive modeling

Policymakers

Goal 5: Turn Policy into Action

Translate national policy, educational, and program recommendations into research and public health care actions.

Opportunities for engagement

  • Create quality-control performance metrics for COPD detection, care, and treatment
  • Encourage the adoption and use of performance metrics for COPD detection, care, treatment, and prevention
  • Assess the progress of the COPD National Action Plan's initiatives
  • Share information about the COPD National Action Plan's progress

Researchers


Researcher

Goal 3: Improve data collection and dissemination

Collect, analyze, report, and disseminate COPD-related public health data that drive change and track progress.

Opportunities for engagement

  • Work with the public health authorities to improve the quality of COPD surveillance data  and collect information about health disparities in COPD prevention, diagnosis, care, and treatment
  • Use EHR/PHR technology to assess and evaluate the healthcare system's capacity to monitor and control COPD
  • Promote research that tracks the prevalence and incidence of COPD, including its phenotypes
  • Support surveillance projects and epidemiological investigations to help understand the characteristics and needs of people at risk for and living with COPD
  • Create a publicly accessible database to evaluate and enable predictive modeling

Researchers

Goal 4: Increase COPD research

Increase and sustain research to better understand the prevention, pathogenesis, diagnosis, treatment, and management of COPD.

Opportunities for engagement

  • Support and promote basic, clinical, and applied research to improve the diagnosis and treatment of people with COPD
  • Invest in, facilitate, and promote the development and use of new technologies to improve the COPD care continuum
  • Include information about COPD in training programs for medical professionals and scientists
  • Leverage NHLBI-funded programs and NHLBI-supported research to develop new treatments for COPD and identify subgroups of patients
  • Identify risk factors and targets for preventive interventions and test the feasibility of strategies for COPD prevention
  • Conduct clinical trials in specific subgroups of patients and develop personalized medicine for COPD based on the pathogenesis and clinical heterogeneity

Policymakers

Goal 5: Turn Policy into Action

Translate national policy, educational, and program recommendations into research and public health care actions.

Opportunities for engagement

  • Create quality-control performance metrics for COPD detection, care, and treatment
  • Encourage the adoption and use of performance metrics for COPD detection, care, treatment, and prevention
  • Assess the progress of the COPD National Action Plan's initiatives
  • Share information about the COPD National Action Plan's progress

Patients and Caregivers


Woman and son

Goal 1: Build awareness

Empower people with COPD, their families , and caregivers to recognize and reduce the burden of COPD.

Opportunities for engagement

  • Share COPD risk assessment tools and educational materials with your audiences
  • Work with local stakeholders, partners, and communities to raise awareness in areas with high rates of COPD
  • Use local events, workplace wellness programs, media coverage, and health observances as opportunities to educate audiences about COPD
  • Develop train-the-trainer programs and distribute educational materials at state and federal levels
  • Identify and engage new partners who can address COPD, especially those who reach heavily affected populations

Policymakers

Goal 5: Turn Policy into Action

Translate national policy, educational, and program recommendations into research and public health care actions.

Opportunities for engagement

  • Create quality-control performance metrics for COPD detection, care, and treatment
  • Encourage the adoption and use of performance metrics for COPD detection, care, treatment, and prevention
  • Assess the progress of the COPD National Action Plan's initiatives
  • Share information about the COPD National Action Plan's performance

Advocates and Nonprofits


Woman and son

Goal 1: Build awareness

Empower people with COPD, their families , and caregivers to recognize and reduce the burden of COPD.

Opportunities for engagement

  • Share COPD risk assessment tools and educational materials with your audiences
  • Work with local stakeholders, partners, and communities to raise awareness in areas with high rates of COPD
  • Use local events, workplace wellness programs, media coverage, and health observances as opportunities to educate audiences about COPD
  • Develop train-the-trainer programs and distribute educational materials at state and federal levels
  • Identify and engage new partners who can address COPD, especially those who reach heavily affected populations

Policymakers

Goal 5: Turn Policy into Action

Translate national policy, educational, and program recommendations into research and public health care actions.

Opportunities for engagement

  • Create quality-control performance metrics for COPD detection, care, and treatment
  • Encourage the adoption and use of performance metrics for COPD detection, care, treatment, and prevention
  • Assess the progress of the COPD National Action Plan's initiatives
  • Share information about the COPD National Action Plan's progress