329429
Community needs and public policy issues in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a common, progressive and debilitating disease that is underdiagnosed, mistreated and understudied. 15 million Americans have been diagnosed with COPD and another 12 million likely have symptoms but remain undiagnosed. Poor outcomes stem from large gaps in the healthcare system, public health infrastructure, policies and funding levels.
Methods:
The COPD Foundation (COPDF) has performed needs assessments, community surveys and active listening to identify opportunities to increase awareness, foster communication amongst providers and patients, diagnose patients earlier, improve treatment and education, engage and activate patients and create community connections.
Results:
The COPDF identified peer support as a key unmet need and implemented an innovative social community platform and a telephonic peer health support line to address this. Providers and health systems were interested in reducing hospital readmissions for COPD. The COPDF will host the Second Readmissions Summit on March 26-27th and results including best practices for reducing readmissions will be presented. COPDF continues to engage the public health and policy community around key policy issues which impede the ability of the public health community to adequately address this high needs population including the lack of federal authorization for COPD within the chronic disease division at CDC.
Conclusion:
The COPD community has large and varied needs that can be met through a comprehensive and coordinated approach to COPD which must include a large role for the public health community.
Learning Areas:
Chronic disease management and preventionPlanning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Public health or related public policy
Learning Objectives:
Explain the gaps in care for COPD that result in poor outcomes for patients, providers and the healthcare system
Describe community support infrastructure implemented in 2014 to address social support needs
Evaluate preliminary results of social collaborative platform for COPD patients
Discuss key COPD public policy issues at the federal and state levels
Keyword(s): Chronic Disease Management and Care, Public Health Policy
Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have overseen the planning and implementation of COPD related public health programs for over 5 years. I have experience with identifying the needs of the COPD community and working to achieve public health policies to create positive health improvements for the community.
Any relevant financial relationships? No
I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.