VIDEO: Common misconceptions, addressing misinformation in COPD

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When you look at the most common misconceptions of COPD, I think for me, if a 35-year-old comes in my office with COPD, 90% of the time it ain't COPD, it's something else. So you really need to work these patients up when they're younger. There's nothing else to do with inhalers. There's a lot of things that you can do to manage COPD. I've mentioned some of those strategies, right? Seeing if there's reactive airway disease, reversible airway disease, to understand if you can open up the patient's options, look at type two inflammation. Is it present? Open up the patient's options, right? Look at the new nebulizer that's going to be coming out probably next year sometime or later on this year. I mean, is this going to be an option in patients as well?

The best way to address misinformation is by giving appropriate information. So you want to tell the patient what COPD is, emphysema, chronic bronchitis, what the management options are, right? Long-acting muscarinic antagonist, long-acting beta agonist, inhaled corticosteroid, right? Combination therapies, triple therapies, future therapies. Give them the information. It takes five minutes to teach them what it is. If you need help communicating, there are plenty of places online where you can get that information and perhaps you can leave it in your office for the patient to read on their own, or perhaps you can read it and understand how to communicate to people. When I'm communicating to people, I try to use analogies, right? When I'm talking about inhaler therapies and angry airways, I always bring in kids because people understand when they have children, they can understand those analogies, right? I'm always like kids screaming in the living room. Then you want to put the kid in their room and shut the door. They can still scream and you still hear it. It's just a little bit quieter. So that's how I kind of explain inhalers to them. So you want to use these things, but overall, you want to give patients information on COPD. You want them to understand COPD, you want them to understand the therapy, and you want them to feel comfortable using those therapies and remain compliant. I really appreciate you guys being here today. Thank you so much for joining us. We'll see you next time.