Mark Dransfield, M.D.,
Photography: Andrea MabryNew recommendations from the Lancet Commission on COPD, including from Commission Chair Mark Dransfield, M.D., division director of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, outline ways to eliminate and control COPD worldwide.
Released Sept. 5, the report seeks to broaden the understanding of the disease, recommending the complete ban of smoking and more.
“COPD has long been viewed as a self-inflicted disease caused by smoking and as a result has been largely ignored compared with many other diseases with similar or less public health impact, and this has translated to little public awareness and advocacy, woefully inadequate research investment, and only limited progress in terms of prevention and treatment,” Dransfield said. “The aim of the commission is to awaken the respiratory community, as well as the larger group of medical, public health and governmental stakeholders, about the urgency of the problem and to drive transformational change.” 
Dransfield adds that this includes several key recommendations, including to classify the disease based on five types, four of which have nothing to do with smoking, and to move away from spirometry as the only acceptable test for diagnosis to identify early and perhaps reversible disease. 
According to the World Health Organization, COPD is the third leading cause of death worldwide, causing 3.23 million deaths in 2019. 
“The publication of the commission’s findings is only the beginning of our work, and we will push to help implement our recommendations,” he said. “We intentionally gave metrics with the recommendations as it adds accountability for us all, and we intend to report the progress over the coming years, even if we fail to achieve the goals.”  
To read the full report, click here.

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