Objectives

  • Recognize the missed opportunity of making a diagnosis of COPD

  • Offer an effective treatment for patients presenting with an “exacerbation like event”

  • Understand the challenges the patients face, specific to an exacerbation of COPD

  • Discuss the importance of mortality in COPD, in particular as a complication of COPD exacerbations

  • Target "the right patient for the right treatment" in order to reduce morbidity and mortality

  • Know how to optimize the pharmacological therapy linking to "Living Well with COPD program" and the use of the written action plan.

This program was co-developed by the Canadian Thoracic Society, RESPIPLUS™ and AstraZeneca and was planned to achieve scientific integrity, objectivity and balance

About our speakers

Dr. Peter Lin, MD, CCFP

Dr. Peter Lin is the Director of Primary Care Initiatives at the Canadian Heart Research Centre. He continues to be a lecturer and speaker with two busy family practices in Toronto. He has also served in the past as the medical director at the University of Toronto’s Health and Wellness Centre at Scarborough. In an effort to raise the knowledge base of the general population, Dr. Lin has spoken at public forums directly to the public. He has been a medical expert for a series on the Discovery channel and he is also the health columnist for CBC Radio and is heard across Canada.

Dr. Joshua Wald, MD, FRCPC

Dr. Wald trained in respirology at McMaster University and subsequently completed a fellowship at the Montreal Chest Institute in pulmonary rehabilitation and chronic disease management before returning to McMaster to begin his clinical practice at the Firestone Institute for Respiratory Health at St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton. He is a member of the Canadian Thoracic Society assembly on COPD steering committee. His clinical and research interests are focused on pulmonary rehabilitation and the comprehensive care of patients with COPD.

Dr Lisa Mielniczuk, MD,FRCPC

Dr. Mielniczuk completed her medical degree at McMaster University, a residency in Internal Medicine from Queen's University and a Cardiology Fellowship at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute. She completed a fellowship in advanced heart failure/cardiac transplantation at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston - where she also completed a Master's Degree in Clinical Science and Epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Mielniczuk is a Professor of Medicine at the University of Ottawa and the Director of the Advanced Heart Diseases Program at the Ottawa Heart Institute. She is also cross-appointed to the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine. Her commitment to leadership and program development is evident in her accomplishments at the Heart Institute. She has more than 100 peer reviewed papers, and has built a multi-disciplinary right heart failure research program at the University of Ottawa. Her other accomplishments extend provincially and nationally.