Feasibility and Impact of a Computer-Guided Consultation on Guideline-Based Management of COPD in General Practice

Angus RM, Thompson EB, Davies L, Trusdale A, Hodgson C, McKnight E, et al. Feasibility and impact of a computer-guided consultation on guideline-based management of COPD in general practice. Primary Care Respiratory Journal. 2012. p. 425–30.

The study reports the results of the use of the LungHealth COPD guided consultation in the hands of practice nurses reviewing 293 patients across 16 General Practices. These are patients who already had an established diagnosis of COPD and were on the GP register with this diagnosis. 

What did the study report? 

The implementation of the LungHealth COPD guided consultation results in the finding of significant proportion of patients not having the diagnosis of COPD despite being on the GP register with this label. In those patients where the diagnosis of COPD is accurate, review with the software results in the recommendation of a large number of changes to the management of these patients in order to meet guideline level care. 

Establishing a diagnosis of COPD: When this cohort underwent spirometry as part of the LungHealth COPD review, 19% of this group were found not to have the diagnosis of COPD based on results of spirometry (McNemar's test; p<0.001)

Changes to the management of the patient when using the software: The consultation resulted in 169 recommendations in terms of medication changes in order to meet guideline level COPD care in the study population in addition to referrals for smoking cessation, pulmonary rehabilitation, and Oxygen assessment. 

Read the paper here.