COPD Learn More Breathe Better® Partners

• Alpha-1 Association
  The Alpha-1 Association regularly shares campaign updates with their members and maintains a link to the COPD Learn More Breathe Better® Web site.

• Alpha-1 Foundation
  The Alpha-1 Foundation in partnership with the COPD Foundation, supported the development and production of the COPD Learn More Breathe Better® Resource Kit.  Designed to help advocacy organizations, patient groups and health care professionals spread the word about COPD, the kit contains tools and materials including fact sheets for those at-risk for COPD and diagnosed patients, an educational video, radio and print PSAs, presentation materials, and more.  To date, more than 600 kits have been distributed nationwide.

• American Academy of Family Physicians
  The American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) is helping to raise awareness of COPD among family physicians.  The organization’s leadership invited COPD patient advocate Grace Anne Dorney Koppel to share her personal story during a plenary session at the 2008 AAFP Scientific Assembly in San Diego on September 18.  Dennis Doherty, MD, FCCP, will provide a clinical overview to complement Ms.  Koppel’s presentation.  More than 15,000 attendees are expected at the conference.

  The American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) ran an advertisement in the October and November issues of its publication American Family Physician to promote the COPD module of the AAFP METRIC program. This program is an online continuing medical education (CME) activity focused on chronic diseases.  The advertisement also directed the publication’s audience of family physicians to the COPD Learn More Breathe Better® campaign Web site and highlighted that November was COPD Awareness Month.  

• American Association for Respiratory Care
  The AARC adopted COPD Learn More Breathe Better® as the theme for both their Respiratory Care Week and Lung Health Week in October, 2007.  The organization promoted campaign materials on its Web site, and provided in-kind ad space for the print PSA along with a story on the campaign in the September 2007 issue of AARC Times.

• American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation
  The AACVPR invited James P. Kiley, PhD, Director of the Division of Lung Diseases at NHLBI to speak on behalf of the COPD Learn More Breathe Better® Campaign at their 2007 Annual Meeting in Salt Lake City.

• American College of Chest Physicians
  The ACCP provided support for the campaign at the 2007 CHEST conference in Chicago.  The organization donated exhibit space to the campaign, added a session on COPD awareness, supported the distribution of educational materials, and profiled the campaign in the CHEST Daily News.  COPD Learn More Breathe Better® representatives also moderated a panel discussion at the Asthma/COPD Summit Workshop.

• American College of Physicians
  The ACP distributed COPD Learn More Breathe Better® campaign materials at COPD-related presentations at its 2007 annual meeting and provided in-kind ad space for the print PSA in Internal Medicine Today.

• American Lung Association
  The ALA has promoted the COPD Learn More Breathe Better® Resource Kit to its chapters nationwide.  The ALA has cobranded campaign materials for use in regional and national outreach.  ALA also included an overview of the campaign and a profile of Grace Anne Dorney Koppel in the November 2007 issue of Lung Health, which is distributed to 100,000 subscribers.

• American Lung Association of Arizona
  ALAA is taking COPD outreach “on the road”, heading up a program to educate doctors, nurses, and respiratory therapists in remote areas of Arizona about diagnosis and treatment of the disease as part of their Breathe Free program.  COPD Learn More Breathe Better® fact sheets and resource kit materials have been incorporated into the two-day courses designed to raise awareness of COPD, promote early detection of the disease through use of spirometry, and educate healthcare providers and patients about the dangers of tobacco smoke and environmental exposures.

• American Thoracic Society
  The American Thoracic Society put COPD on the forefront of the agenda at the 2008 International Conference in Toronto by inviting COPD patient advocate Grace Anne Dorney Koppel, to deliver the President’s Lecture to its membership on May 20, 2008.  This marked the first time this lecture has been delivered by a non-medical professional.

• Breathe LA
  Breathe LA hosted a Spanish-language COPD workshop on Breathe LA COPD Awareness Day, November 14, 2008.  The educational event was part of the organization’s Pulmones Libres/Breathe Free program.  In support of the event, Breathe LA ran public service announcements promoting COPD awareness and referencing the COPD Learn More Breathe Better® campaign Web site, and co-branded campaign fact sheets were distributed at the workshop.

• Colorado COPD Coalition
  In June 2007, the Colorado COPD Coalition introduced the first statewide action plan in the U.S. designed to address COPD.  The plan includes targeted distribution of co-branded COPD Learn More Breathe Better® print and radio PSAs and the distribution of educational materials, including campaign fact sheets for at-risk and diagnosed patients, as well as the educational video.  The radio PSAs ran in southeastern Colorado this May.  Print PSAs will be inserted in an agricultural publication as well as in daily newspapers.

• COPD Alert
  COPD Alert regularly shares campaign updates with their members and maintains a link to the COPD Learn More Breathe Better® Web site.

• COPD Foundation
  The COPD Foundation teamed up with the Nebraska Society for Respiratory Care and the American Lung Association of Nebraska to hold COPD awareness and screening events in Omaha, Lincoln, and North Platte, Nebraska from October 17 to October 19, 2008.  Nearly 180 lung function tests were administered and COPD Learn More Breathe Better® campaign fact sheets were distributed.  The events were covered on local radio, television and print news as well as online, reaching thousands of local residents with COPD awareness messages.

  The COPD Foundation and the Florida COPD steering committee convened leaders from government and academic institutions and from health and advocacy organizations on November 7, 2008 for a statewide COPD Summit.  The Summit aimed to establish a statewide framework to combat the burden of COPD, including strategies for public and private outreach and awareness initiatives and partnerships.  James P. Kiley, Ph.D., the Director of the Division of Lung Diseases at NHLBI spoke about the COPD Learn More Breathe Better® campaign and how states are integrating its materials into their own programs.  The event also garnered local radio news coverage.

• COPD International
  COPD International regularly shares campaign updates with their members and maintains a link to the COPD Learn More Breathe Better® Web site.

• EFFORTS
  EFFORTS regularly shares campaign updates with their members and maintains a link to the COPD Learn More Breathe Better® Web site.

• Hawaii COPD Coalition
  The Hawaii COPD Coalition sponsored its 2nd Annual COPD Education Day on September 22, 2008 in Honolulu.  Presentations focused on managing COPD through sleep, exercise, nutrition and medication.  Nearly 200 COPD patients and healthcare professionals attended the event, which was presented as a component of the Coalition's, Project SUCCESS--Spirometry-Urged Cessation through Counseling Education and Sustained Support.  In addition to the Education Day event, the Coalition partnered with Longs Drug stores to conduct a successful monthly in-store lung testing program from May through September, 2008.  COPD Learn More Breathe Better® fact sheets were also distributed as part of this effort.

• Illinois COPD Coalition
  The Illinois COPD Coalition, convened by the Respiratory Health Association of Metro Chicago (RHAMC), introduced a new statewide plan to address COPD at a press conference in Chicago.  James P. Kiley, PhD, Director of the Division of Lung Diseases at NHLBI, and patient advocate Grace Anne Dorney Koppel were among the presenters at the launch.  The strategic action plan seeks to stem the growth of new cases, reduce mortality rates, and improve quality of life for the more than 500,000 Illinois residents currently living with COPD and incorporates the distribution of co-branded COPD Learn More Breathe Better® materials.

• National Emphysema/COPD Association
  NECA regularly shares campaign updates with their members and maintains a link to the COPD Learn More Breathe Better® Web site.

• National Jewish Medical and Research Center
  National Jewish Medical and Research Center supports the Colorado COPD Coalition’s COPD planning and outreach initiative.  NJMRC representative, Barry Make, MD has delivered presentations on behalf of COPD Learn More Breathe Better® at meetings and conferences across the country.

• National Lung Health Education Program
  National Lung Health Education Program Chair Dennis Doherty, MD will provide a clinical overview on COPD to complement Grace Anne Dorney Koppel’s presentation at the American Academy of Family Physicians Scientific Assembly on September 18, 2008.

• US COPD Coalition
  The US COPD Coalition official adopted COPD Learn More Breathe Better® as the theme for COPD Awareness Month 2007 and 2008.  The Coalition has hosted COPD Learn More Breathe Better ®campaign leaders to provide updates at coalition meetings since the campaign’s inception.

• Will Rogers Institute
  The Will Rogers Institute promoted COPD Awareness Month on its homepage throughout November, incorporating the COPD Learn More Breathe Better® “4 Things You Need to Know About COPD” fact sheet into website content, offering downloadable campaign fact sheets for patients and at-risk individuals, and providing a link to the campaign website.  Click here to view.  Looking ahead, the Will Rogers Institute is committed to producing a 2009 summer movie theater promotion to raise awareness of COPD.