[Expert Meeting: Integrated Care of the COPD Patients]

Despite considerable progress concerning pharmaceutical therapeutic options, many COPD patients show a markedly reduced quality of life and increased mortality risk. This workshop aimed to identify COPD-specific factors impeding an improved mode of care for patients with COPD. Such factors are: the generally lower social and educational status of the majority of COPD patients; the stigma of COPD as a self-inflicted disease ("smoker's lung"); the strict sectoral separation within the German health care system. In the second part the workshop tried to identify ways to improve the care of COPD patients. Use of health information technology, improved communication between care givers and patients as well as between the health care sectors, integrating rehabilitation and establishing self-management education are factors within an integrated patient-centered approach. In summary, an integrated management of the individual patient with COPD including multi-professional teams should contribute to optimizing the quality of COPD care.