Translating The GOLD COPD Guidelines Into Primary Care Practice

Study Summary

This project will evaluate the translation of the Gold (the Global Strategy for the Diagnosis, Management, and Prevention of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) COPD guidelines into primary care practice. During phase I, a needs assessment will evaluate barriers and facilitators to implementation of COPD guidelines into clinical practice through focus groups of primary care patients and providers. Using formative evaluation and feedback from the focus groups, three tools will be developed, refined and pilot tested. The effectiveness of the materials developed in phase I will be tested in phase II (a randomized clinical trial conducted with one year of intervention within non-academic primary care practices) regarding physician performance of COPD guideline implementation and improvement in the clinically relevant outcomes (appropriate screening, diagnosis and management of COPD) compared to usual care.

Primary Outcome

An adherence tool will be developed and reviewed by an expert panel. They will review the suggested criterion and make recommendations regarding an item's status on the tool. The panel may also suggest additional criteria for inclusion in the tool. The tool will be modified based on expert consensus. Once the tool is finalized, a detailed algorithm will be developed for scoring the primary care practice data which will include an adherence score for each visit and an overall adherence score and

Interventions

• OTHER provider support tools plus spirometer