• Daiana Stolz, Takudzwa Mkorombindo, Desiree M Schumann, Alvar Agusti, Samuel Y Ash, Mona Bafadhel, Chunxue Bai, James D Chalmers, Gerard J Criner, Shyamali C Dharmage, FranssenFrits M EFMEDepartment of Research and Education, CIRO, Horn, Netherlands; Department of Respiratory Medicine, Maastricht University Medical Centre, Maastricht, Netherlands., Urs Frey, MeiLan Han, Nadia N Hansel, Nathaniel M Hawkins, Ravi Kalhan, Melanie Konigshoff, Fanny W Ko, Trisha M Parekh, Pippa Powell, Maureen Rutten-van Mölken, Jodie Simpson, Don D Sin, Yuanlin Song, Bela Suki, Thierry Troosters, George R Washko, Tobias Welte, and Mark T Dransfield.
• Clinic of Respiratory Medicine and Pulmonary Cell Research, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland; Department of Clinical Research, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland; Clinic of Respiratory Medicine and Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany.
• Lancet. 2022 Sep 17; 400 (10356): 921972921-972.

AbstractDespite substantial progress in reducing the global impact of many non-communicable diseases, including heart disease and cancer, morbidity and mortality due to chronic respiratory disease continues to increase. This increase is driven primarily by the growing burden of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and has occurred despite the identification of cigarette smoking as the major risk factor for the disease more than 50 years ago. Many factors have contributed to what must now be considered a public health emergency: failure to limit the sale and consumption of tobacco products, unchecked exposure to environmental pollutants across the life course, and the ageing of the global population (partly as a result of improved outcomes for other conditions). Additionally, despite the heterogeneity of COPD, diagnostic approaches have not changed in decades and rely almost exclusively on post-bronchodilator spirometry, which is insensitive for early pathological changes, underused, often misinterpreted, and not predictive of symptoms. Furthermore, guidelines recommend only simplistic disease classification strategies, resulting in the same therapeutic approach for patients with widely differing conditions that are almost certainly driven by variable pathophysiological mechanisms. And, compared with other diseases with similar or less morbidity and mortality, the investment of financial and intellectual resources from both the public and private sector to advance understanding of COPD, reduce exposure to known risks, and develop new therapeutics has been woefully inadequate.

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