News
February 8, 2010
This past Super Bowl Sunday, the “Hugs4Holly” campaign utilized the social media website Twitter to raise funds for Holly Julian, a COPDer who is facing a double-lung transplant at University Transplant Center in San Antonio, TX.
During halftime, the “Hugs4Holly” campaign urged people to go online and watch “The Other Halftime Show”, a benefit concert put on by TwitterJamBand to raise money for Julian’s medical expenses.
Julian, along with husband Steve Julian (a member of the band), the National Foundation for Transplants and a team of friends, created the “Hugs4Holly” campaign to raise money for her transplant.
Hugs4Holly website
Follow Holly’s campaign on Twitter
More information about the Hugs4Holly campaign
ABC affiliate KSAT-12’s coverage on ‘The Other Halftime Show’
Follow the COPD Foundation on Twitter
February 3, 2010
DRIVE4COPD Sheds Light on the Nation’s 4th Leading Killer Through Unprecedented Public Health Initiative: Hollywood, Sports and Music Stars Drive 6,000 Miles Cross Country to Identify the Millions of People with COPD Who May Not Know They Have It
Ridgefield, CT, February 3, 2010 /PRNewswire/—A powerful group of entertainment, sports and healthcare organizations and celebrities have joined forces to screen millions of people who may be at risk for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), the nation’s fourth leading cause of death. The American Lung Association, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc., COPD Foundation and NASCAR® today kicked off DRIVE4COPD, a multi-year public health initiative aiming to reach millions of Americans about the need for early detection of COPD.
An estimated half of the 24 million people in the United States who may have COPD remain undiagnosed. The serious, progressive disease – which includes chronic bronchitis, emphysema, or both – robs people of their ability to breathe and kills more Americans each year than breast cancer and diabetes combined.
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Following the celebrity four-day kick off, the race continues with local COPD screening events at NASCAR races, major sporting events and country music concerts. The DRIVE4COPD celebrity ambassadors will continue spreading their message through public service announcements and briefings on Capitol Hill throughout the year.
“Everyone in America knows someone with COPD and unfortunately half of them are symptomatic and don’t know they have it,” said John Walsh, president of the COPD Foundation and an individual living with COPD. “COPD affects more women than men. Although smoking is a major risk factor, it’s not the only one. Environmental exposures and genetics are also involved. That’s why it’s important to spread awareness about COPD so individuals affected feel empowered and take charge.”
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To read full press release online, click here.
January 29, 2010
For Immediate Release
Media Contact:
Ifdy Perez, COPD Foundation
Email:
Tel: 1-866-731-2673, ext. 398
Washington, DC (January 29, 2010)—This year has been proclaimed the Year of the Lung by health care professional societies worldwide including the American Thoracic Society and the Forum of International Respiratory Societies. The goal is to spread awareness about lung health around the globe. Throughout the year there will be events coordinated by both patient organizations and professional societies aimed at encouraging and inspiring all members of the community to learn more about COPD and help spread that awareness.
“The Year of the Lung will give the COPD community a tremendous opportunity to increase the level of awareness and understanding about the impact of COPD in the U.S. as well as the world,” John W. Walsh, president of the COPD Foundation, says.
The campaign is giving organizations worldwide the opportunity to engage in awareness and advocacy activities under the same umbrella, creating a unified effort in the battle against COPD.
“The COPD Foundation is pleased to participate as a partner in the Year of the Lung campaign and present our Faces of COPD program highlighting the impact COPD risk factors has on women’s health due to environmental exposures, such as biomass fuels found widespread in developing countries, occupational dust and chemicals, as well as smoking,” Walsh says.
Dr. Dean E. Schraufnagel, chair of Year of the Lung as well as president-elect of the American Thoracic Society, says the year long activities include 300 to 400 organizations and span the globe.
“Most of them are based on awareness, but it’s more than just awareness, it’s [the idea of] accomplishing something,” he says.
Schraufnagel, who is also a professor of medicine and pathology and program director in the Section of Pulmonary, Critical Care, Sleep and Allergy at the University of Illinois at Chicago, says the campaign is a time for self-reflection, and for people to re-evaluate their lifestyles if in fact they are smokers.
“I think people can use it as a personal lung health [campaign],” he says. “They should say, ‘I think this year is time for me to stop smoking.’”
Schraufnagel also says Year of the Lung is designed to be a grassroots campaign.
“It was set up as a forum to allow people to acquire ideas from other people. We hope that people do things that they thought in their community was appropriate,” he says.
He also says that one big part of this campaign is spirometry testing, to identify people who might have COPD and not know it.
The COPD Foundation will be highlighting a topic every month of this year through its e-newsletter, website, and Facebook/Twitter pages. These themes will help educate about the issues concerning COPD, including public policy and advocacy efforts.
For more information about the COPD Foundation’s Year of the Lung campaign, visit our website at http://www.copdfoundation.org. For more information about the international Year of the Lung campaign, visit http://www.yearofthelung.com.
About the COPD Foundation
The COPD Foundation is dedicated to developing and supporting programs which improve the quality of life through research, education, early diagnosis, and enhanced therapy for persons whose lives are impacted by Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). The COPD Foundation has several programs dedicated to informing, empowering, educating, and engaging individuals affected by COPD, including both diagnosed and undiagnosed individuals, their families and friends, and their medical professionals. For more information, please visit: http://www.copdfoundation.org.
About COPD
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is the fourth leading cause of death in the U.S. and the only chronic disease growing in mortality. It affects approximately 24 million Americans but only 12 million are diagnosed. COPD includes chronic bronchitis, emphysema, and adult onset (refractory) asthma. Symptoms include breathlessness, wheezing, and chronic coughing. For more information about COPD, visit http://www.copdfoundation.org or call 1-866-316-COPD (2673).
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Download the Complete Press Release (PDF)
January 13, 2010
Submitted via the web at http://www.healthypeople.gov/hp2020/comments on 12/28/2009
To Whom It May Concern:
The COPD Foundation is the national not-for-profit organization solely dedicated to representing individuals with COPD in the United States. COPD, or Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, is an umbrella term used to describe progressive lung diseases, encompassing emphysema, chronic bronchitis, refractory asthma, and severe bronchiectasis. This disease is characterized by increasing breathlessness and is preventable and treatable. Smoking is not the only risk factor for COPD; second-hand smoke, occupational exposure, air pollution and genetic risk factors like Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency also cause COPD.
NIH estimates that 12 million adults have COPD and another 12 million are undiagnosed or developing COPD. COPD is currently the fourth leading cause of death in the US and is estimated to be the third leading cause of death in the US by 2020. Many believe that COPD is on the rise because it lacks a significant public health infrastructure and has not been a focus of the Chronic Disease Division at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The COPD Foundation was established to speed innovations which will make treatments more effective and affordable, undertake initiatives that result in expanded services for COPD patients, and improve the lives of patients with COPD and related disorders through research and education that will lead to prevention and someday a cure for this disease. The COPD Foundation is currently engaged in applied public health programs such as the Mobile Spirometry Unit and advocacy aimed at enhancing data collection through the addition of a COPD module on the BRFSS.
The Foundation offers comments on the following 2009 Draft Objectives for Healthy People 2020:
RD HP2020-5 Reduce deaths from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) among adults:
The COPD Foundation is encouraged that this objective has been retained. Professional society guidelines produced by physician groups should be promoted and followed. The key to reducing COPD deaths in the US is better data collection so that public health responses can be designed to respond in a targeted way with programs and policy. Currently no national data source exists that is sufficiently large enough to allow for state level estimates of COPD prevalence. Tackling COPD will also depend on the education and involvement of primary care physicians, allied health professionals, such as respiratory therapists and individuals at risk. Early diagnosis and intervention must be enhanced as evidence of impaired lung function often goes unrecognized until there is significant lung damage and advanced disease thus limiting effective treatment options. It is also important that the genetic risk factors currently being investigated in the NIH funded research study COPDGene be publicly available and appropriately applied as soon as they are available.
RD HP2020-13 Reduce deaths from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) related hospitalization rates:
The COPD Foundation is encouraged that this objective has been adopted for 2020. The need for data that can be used to develop programs and policy is restated under this category. In addition interventions such as pulmonary rehabilitation should be promoted. Patients with COPD and those with non-COPD respiratory disease can have significant improvements in exercise tolerance and health-related quality of life with pulmonary rehabilitation. Pulmonary Rehab has also been shown to reduce hospitalizations. The COPD Foundation also recommends that respiratory therapists be recognized under Medicare Part B so that beneficiaries do not have to be admitted to the hospital to have access to the allied health professionals with expertise in the treatment and management of COPD. With the exception of the Comprehensive Outpatient Rehabilitation Facility (CORF) benefit, under current Medicare law respiratory therapists are only permitted to provide clinical services outside the institutional setting under the “incident to” a physician’s service benefit category. The delivery of health care services has dramatically advanced especially for pulmonary medicine and the delivery of respiratory therapy services. Medical evidence supports the efficacy of services such as disease management, smoking cessation, proper selection and education on aerosol device delivery systems, and office-based spirometry. Services that once could only be provided in an acute hospital setting are being delivered in alternate care sites. With costly chronic respiratory illnesses often resulting in hospitalizations and hospital readmissions, and COPD as the fourth leading cause of death in the country, the time has come for Medicare to recognize the respiratory therapy profession in settings other then the acute care hospital and the value RTs bring in treating beneficiaries with chronic lung diseases and other respiratory illnesses. In addition to rehabilitation, treatment for COPD can prevent exacerbations and hospitalizations. However, many patients with COPD are managed for other concurrent conditions and the COPD remains undiagnosed. Proactive diagnostic programs should be undertaken to establish accurate diagnosis that will lead to implementation of effective therapy.
RD HP2020-14 Reduce Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) related hospital-emergency-department visit rates:
The COPD Foundation is encouraged that this objective has been adopted for 2020. The Foundation aggress with comments submitted by the American College of Emergency Physicians that “the key to reducing visits to the Emergency Department for COPD is not only improved longitudinal care, but also better patient education and prevention.” The key to prevention of exacerbations is accurate diagnosis and implementation of therapy. Proactive diagnostic programs therefore are key.
We appreciate the opportunity to comment on this important 10-year national plan to address health and disease prevention. We look forward to the final plan incorporating these important COPD objectives to enhance the desperately needed public focus on COPD to benefit the lives of so many pulmonary patients.
Sincerely,
John W. Walsh
President
CC: Senator Mike Crapo, Senator Blanche Lincoln
COPDF Public Comment, Healthy People 2020
January 13, 2010
On January 27th and 28th in Bethesda, MD, the COPD Foundation, along with academic experts, pharmaceutical companies and the FDA, have designed a workshop that will focus on the scientific and clinical issues in the development and qualification of biomarkers for COPD.
The COPD Biomarkers Qualification Workshop will feature expert panels that will share data and engage in debates with workshop attendees, including individuals representing academic institutions, government entities and pharmaceutical companies. The workshop will result in a publication on the available data and data gaps for biomarker qualification, as well as the plan to formulate a consortia comprised of both public and private organizations dedicated to biomarker qualification.
Exciting developments in COPD research have made it clear to experts that validating biomarkers will improve drug discovery for COPD and allow clinicians to better diagnose COPD.
Individuals interested in participating via live webcast may obtain more information by contacting Jamie Lamson at . Please provide your contact information, current position and institution. Web links will be available the week of the workshop and will be sent to confirmed participants via email.
Final Agenda, PDF
