Sputum-guided Treatment With Comprehensive Care Management in COPD - A Randomized-controlled Trial

What this study is about

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a lung condition affecting 1 in 6 Canadians and does not have a cure. Flare-ups of COPD are the most common reason someone goes to hospital in Canada. This is made worse because within 30-days of having a flare-up, 1 in 5 patients will come back to hospital for the same problem. Flare-ups of COPD often have many causes and these are different person to person. Sometimes it is related to behaviours such as smoking or not using medicines properly. Other times, it is from lung inflammation. Education programs that help people learn about their disease and maintain healthy behaviours, and using phlegm to decide on which medicines will be useful, have been studied separately and appear to work, but many people still have flare-ups. To help fix this problem, we need to look carefully at each patient, to make sure they are on the right medicine but also have the right behaviours and support to benefit from medical care. The goal of this project is to see if patients who are taught the right behaviours and have their lung inflammation controlled with the right medicines will have fewer COPD flare-ups than those who get normal care.

Who can join (things the study team will check)

✅ You may be able to join if…

• >=2 exacerbations of COPD in the last 12-months, FEV1/FVC<0.7 or radiologic emphysema, with a >-10 pack-year smoking history

🚫 You may not be able to join if…

• severe mental illness not controlled by medication or life-expectancy less than 6-months

Where this trial is running

• Hamilton General Hospital, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
• St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

Who to contact

Terence N Ho, MB, MSc · 9055221155 · hot4@mcmaster.ca

It's completely normal to call and ask questions before deciding anything. Mention the study ID: NCT04890938.