A pilot survey undertaken by the IPCRG of international delivery of care for COPD

Although COPD is a huge healthcare burden globally it remains difficult to analyse differences in international management, share successful management strategies across countries or implement internationally agreed protocols and guidelines. This pilot study examines how COPD is managed in primary care in ten separate countries to understand variation in responses to questionnaire themes which include: diagnosis, management, therapeutic interventions, use of referral for specialist care, attitudes to COPD, and guideline awareness. A multicenter, questionnaire based international pilot study was undertaken in 10 countries in 30 centres. Questionnaires were administered to an opportune sample of 60 primary care physicians in each country. A between countries comparison was apparent and variation was recorded in responses to: diagnosis, management, therapeutic interventions, use of referral for specialist care, attitudes to COPD, and awareness of national and international guidelines for COPD. Results suggest the need for a larger sample size for a larger randomised follow up study to detect statistically significant differences in each of the questionnaire's primary care themes. Present findings will be followed up by the next phase of the study which is primarily to compare differences between countries in extent and methods of delivery of care in primary care for COPD. The subsequent phase will also provide a secondary analysis to (1) describe the variation within countries of COPD delivery of care. (2) provide a validated tool that can be used within countries to compare variations in delivery of care for COPD (3) collate national data on process of care and outcomes for COPD for participating countries and (4) determine if any factors reported by this questionnaire are associated with outcomes at a national level.