Improving palliative care for patients with COPD

High quality palliative care for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) remains a major challenge in our modern healthcare systems throughout the world. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines palliative care as “the active total care of patients whose disease is not responsive to curative treatment” [1], a definition that certainly describes the care for patients with COPD. The WHO goes on to say that this care should include “an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families … through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of early identification and impeccable assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, physical, psychosocial and spiritual” [2]. Relief of suffering should also include effective patient- and family-centred communication, identification of the patients' goals of care, shared decision-making, and advance care planning. The need for palliative care in COPD is under-recognised and unaddressed at hospital discharge http://ow.ly/P1YbQ

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