Community pharmacy initiative helps identify emphysema and COPD patients

摘要

COMMUNITY pharmacists taking part in an innovative lung cancer screening project have successfully identified patients who unknowingly had moderate or severe emphysema or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). However, according to results from the second phase of the trial, they did not find any patients with lung cancer. The initiative was developed in south and west London and was the first of its kind, enabling community pharmacists to refer patients direct to hospital, bypassing GPs.