PCRS marks World COPD Day 2025

World COPD Day, this year taking place on the 19th November, is an annual global initiative run by the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD). World COPD Day aims to raise awareness and present new knowledge and novel therapeutic strategies for COPD worldwide.

Short of Breath, Think COPD

The 2025 theme for World COPD Day is 'Short of Breath, Think COPD', which aims to highlight that although COPD is the third leading cause of death worldwide, it is often not diagnosed correctly. In the UK there could be as many as two million people with undiagnosed, and therefore untreated, COPD. 

Of the 1.4 million people with a diagnosis of COPD in the UK, many will have waited years for their diagnosis - a survey from Asthma and Lung UK found that almost a quarter of people (nearly one in four) waited five years or more for a diagnosis. This is echoed in research from King’s College London that highlighted delays in accurate diagnosis of COPD and access to information at the time of diagnosis as key problems to be addressed (findings published in their report A matter of life and breath).

Diagnosis of COPD is based on typical clinical features supported by spirometry. This World COPD Day, we have gathered useful PCRS-produced resources on diagnosis and spirometry - click on a resource to explore this topic further:

• PCRS Position Statement - Spirometry in primary care
• Member-only podcast 🔒- Diagnosis of COPD. Dr Steve Holmes and Jane Scullion discuss the challenges of diagnosing COPD in the aftermath of the COVID pandemic. 

Neighbourhood health

This World COPD Day, PCRS is inviting healthcare professionals to share examples of best practice that demonstrate innovative, integrated, neighbourhood care projects for people with COPD. This is a great opportunity to showcase your projects as part of a national piece of work.

This call forms part of a wider national campaign informed by the NHS 10-Year Plan, which proposes to establish neighbourhood health services by shifting care from hospitals to local communities, to tackle fragmentation in care and improve outcomes through better integration of primary, secondary, community and social services.

We believe this is a key opportunity to showcase how joined-up working—whether expert hospital-at-home teams, pioneering social prescribing projects or culturally sensitive smoking cessation initiatives—can reduce hospitalisations, support prevention, and improve quality of life.

Contribute to this programme and showcase your work by sharing your project’s details, learning, outcomes and your experience with us via a short write up and video.

Submit your case study.

Useful COPD resources

Beyond the Lungs

Access our multi-media tool to illustrate the impact of respiratory disease on other body systems. 

Explore beyond the lungs.

COPD Risk Slider

COPD risk slider*: The COPD risk slider is a tool that can be used to assess exacerbation risk in your COPD patients in a normal 10-20 minute consultation. Learn more in our risk slider webinar.

Challenging Perceptions of COPD

• Animations: This three part animation series** provides a concise guide which healthcare professionals can use to support people with COPD to remain active and healthy, understand that 'flare-ups' of their COPD are not normal and they need to seek help, and stop smoking.
• Webinar: This webinar** focused on smoking, movement for health and COPD exacerbations. The session provides a clear and concise update on the management of COPD, and provide you with some essential information and knowledge to ensure your COPD patients continue to experience best practice COPD care. Watch on demand.

Tune into our COPD podcasts

PCRS members have exclusive access to our podcast series that explores respiratory hot topics. In addition to our podcast on spirometry, members can tune in to learn about:

• Risk Stratification: Help with COPD reviews
• COPD and co-morbidities
• COPD reviews: A conversation between a healthcare professional and a patient

For a taste of our podcast series, listen to our open-access episodes on:

• Lung Volume Reduction for COPD***
• The impact of respiratory disease on mental health
• Suicide and suicide prevention in long-term respiratory conditions
• Mental health and respiratory disease in current and ex-prisoners

Position statements

• Antibiotics and sputum
• Point-of-care testing of C-reactive protein (CRP) for acute assessment in COPD (Update)
   

*We are grateful to have collaborated with Astra Zeneca Ltd on the production of this COPD slider.
**We are grateful to AstraZeneca UK Limited for the provision of an educational grant to develop these resources. They have been developed by PCRS, and AstraZeneca has had no input into the development, content or production of this material.
***Thank you to our podcast sponsors Pulmonx Ltd. This podcast has been instigated and organised by PCRS. The support from the sponsor Pulmonx Ltd has allowed us to provide this valuable educational resource free of charge to all listeners. The sponsor has had no input into the agenda or the selection of speakers.