COPD Decision Support Tool

Helping to diagnose and manage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is the name for a group of lung conditions that cause breathing difficulties, including emphysema and chronic bronchitis. It is a common condition that mainly affects middle-aged or older adults who smoke, many of whom do not realise they have it.

We worked with Prescribing Decision Support (part of Keele University’s Centre for Medicines Optimisation) in the development of a new decision support tool to assist healthcare professionals in the diagnosis and management of COPD in people aged 16 and older.

The tool provides a series of prompts, alerts, notes and recommendations, which the trained healthcare user can then assess using their own clinical judgment. The development of the Toolkit and its delivery was sponsored by GlaxoSmithKline.