Managing COPD

Introduction.- Epidemiology, risk factors and pathophysiology.- The clinical consultation.- Management strategies.- Palliative care in COPD.- The future of COPD

Richard EK Russell, FRCP, PhD, is Honorary Clinical Senior Lecturer at Imperial College, London, UK. He trained at Guy's Hospital and then further in Respiratory Medicine in South London and the Royal Brompton Hospitals. He has been a Consultant at Wexham Park and Windsor Hospitals for 4 years with special interests in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), particularly its pathophysiology, asthma and delivery of care across the primary/secondary care interface. Dr Russell completed a PhD as a British Lung Foundation Research Fellow. The primary area of research was into basic mechanisms of COPD and disease progression in smokers in primary care. This is a continuing area of study for Dr Russell. He is active in the British Thoracic Society and the British Lung Foundation. Dr Russell is the lead from secondary care on the primary care quality outcomes framework national working party. Paul A Ford, MRCP, PhD, is MRC Senior Clinical Research Fellow at Imperial College and Honorary Clinical Fellow at the Royal Brompton, and Wexham and Heatherwood NHS trusts. Dr Ford qualified from St. George's Hospital Medical School, London, in 1990 and completed his PhD in 2003 in Cellular Biology at Imperial College and Royal Brompton NHS trust. His thesis was primarily concerned with the role of the macrophage in airway inflammation, particularly COPD. Currently, he is working on developing novel pharmacological therapies for the treatment of COPD; in particular, modulating airway inflammation. Peter J Barnes, FMedSci, FRS, is Professor of Thoracic Medicine at Imperial College London, UK. Prof. Barnes runs a large and active multidisciplinary group of over 80 researchers exploring the mechanisms and treatment of asthma and more recently COPD. He has linked molecular and cell biology to clinical studies in order to understand the inflammatory process in airway disease and to understand the mechanisms of action of currently used drugs. He has also pioneered the use of