COPD National Action Plan: Our Goals

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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