COPD Awareness Month: Congratulations and Thank You!

Thank you to all of our partners for helping to make COPD Awareness Month a success!  We’ve heard from many of you about exciting events that took place in November and we thank you for making COPD Learn More Breathe Better® materials part of your outreach initiatives.  We look forward to sharing more of your success stories here in the e-newsletter as you continue to update us on your accomplishments.  Want to see coverage of your awareness event or outreach activities?  Tell us more!  And for those of you working to raise awareness all year long, you can continue posting to the events listing page, and of course, campaign materials are always available to support and complement your efforts.

Campaign Update: COPD Learn More Breathe Better® has gone viral!

Throughout COPD Awareness Month, the campaign spread the word about COPD through social media outreach, from blogger outreach, to Facebook, to e-cards and widgets.  As a result, a syndicated medical blog reaching an average of 3,000 visitors per day, Straight From the Doc, highlighted the COPD widget.  A COPD blog, COPD News of the Day, featured four posts about the campaign, the About.com COPD Guide promoted the e-cards, and the " COPD Learn More Breathe Better Facebook “fan” page has 71 supporters and counting.  In addition, an advertising campaign promoting COPD awareness at the top of Google, Yahoo!, and MSN search results, has led to nearly 3,000 clicks to the Web site and received nearly 700,000 impressions.  Click here to link your organization’s homepage to the campaign website.

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Partners In Motion… American Lung Association of Minnesota Shares Lessons Learned from Asthma Coalitions

This October at the American College of Chest Physicians annual meeting, CHEST, Jill Heins Nesvold, Director of Respiratory Health at the American Lung Association of Minnesota, presented a workshop entitled, “Developing COPD Coalitions: Lessons Learned from the Asthma Coalitions.”

“Both asthma and COPD coalitions have similar life cycles, a need for thorough baseline assessment and a desire for clean indoor and outdoor air.  They also have the same potential funders, similar goals and both work to engage healthcare professionals from the pulmonary and primary care communities,” Nesvold said.

“However, there are also differences.  Asthma is high on the public’s agenda, while COPD is relatively unknown.  Asthma is also viewed as a childhood disease, making it easier to secure community involvement and its cause is unknown.  COPD, on the other hand, can have a stigma attached since smoking is one of the primary causes.  In some cases, it can also be more complicated to manage than asthma,” she said.

Nesvold says that for those who are mindful of the similarities and appreciate the differences, there is much to be learned from the great work that has been done for asthma, starting with the basics of coalition building.

“First, it’s important to recognize that all coalitions, regardless of subject, go through similar lifecycles, including genesis, growth and maturation,” Nesvold said.  “Ensure your coalition is led by someone who knows coalitions, not only someone who knows COPD.”

Nesvold says that a baseline assessment, including morbidity data, patient wants and needs, community resources and health plan coverage policies is vital at the start for any coalition.

“How can you know what policies to change if you don’t know what policies exist?” she asked.

Another important lesson to be applied across the board—don’t reinvent the wheel.  “The majority of tools, resources and curricula that you need have likely already been developed.  Do some research on what’s out there and figure out how to fit it in,” Nesvold said.

Lastly, Nesvold advises, have patience!  “It will take some time, but by applying what we learn from the successes and challenges of the asthma coalitions over the last decade, we can create even more effective COPD coalitions and move closer to achieving our goals for COPD.”

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COPD in the News… CDC’s MMWR Includes Information on COPD Mortality

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released new data on COPD mortality in a recent issue of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR).  The data showed that rates of COPD deaths are rising faster in women than in men, and overall, COPD is on track to become the 3rd leading cause of death worldwide in just a few years.  The MMWR also outlines specific states where COPD rates are the highest, and points to the later “boom” of women taking up smoking as the cause for the increase in COPD deaths now.

The CDC’s Janet Croft, PhD participated in a COPD Learn More Breathe Better® knowledge sharing teleconference with state and national partners on November 18 to provide a closer look at the new data for state partners.  Click here to read the MMWR.

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