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Can financial incentives for improvements in healthcare quality enhance identification of COPD in primary care?
  1. Christine Falzon1,
  2. Sarah L Elkin2,
  3. Julia L Kelly3,
  4. Frankie Lynch4,
  5. Iain D Blake1,
  6. Nicholas S Hopkinson3
  1. 1Central London Community Healthcare, St Charles' Hospital, London, UK
  2. 2Respiratory Medicine, Imperial College NHS Trust, London, UK
  3. 3Respiratory Muscle Lab, National Heart & Lung Institute, Imperial College, Royal Brompton Hospital, London, UK
  4. 4NHS Kensington and Chelsea, Primary Care Directorate, St Charles' Hospital, London, UK
  1. Correspondence to Dr Nicholas Hopkinson, Respiratory Muscle Lab, National Heart & Lung Institute, Imperial College, Royal Brompton Hospital, Fulham Road, London SW3 6NP, UK; n.hopkinson{at}ic.ac.uk

https://doi.org/10.1136/thx.2010.140913

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    Undiagnosed chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a major public health issue, as it leads to patients missing out on appropriate preventive and therapeutic interventions.1–3 The ratio of diagnosed/predicted COPD prevalence differs widely between Primary Care Trusts (PCTs), suggesting that there are unacceptable variations in care.4 A National Clinical Strategy for COPD is to be launched in the UK in 2010 and there is an urgent need for evidence to support strategies to increase the identification of patients, particularly those with early disease.

    In 2008 a locally enhanced service (LES) for COPD …

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    Footnotes

    • Funding This work was supported by the NIHR Respiratory Disease Biomedical Research Unit at the Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Foundation Trust and Imperial College London, and by The Inner Northwest London Care Community Integrated Service Improvement Program for COPD.

    • Competing interests None.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; not externally peer reviewed.