Early COPD: the new frontier for disease prevention

This talk provides an overview of early COPD, focusing on the importance of understanding the developments and implications to assist intervening earlier in the disease course to prevent progression to a more substantial disease.

• The progression of established COPD – important clues to early disease
• COPD burden and challenges
• Characterising early disease development in adulthood and childhood
• Nomenclature
• Therapeutic opportunities

Professor Wisia Wedzicha is a professor of respiratory medicine, head of respiratory division NHLI. Honory consultant at Royal Brompton Hospital. She has a major interest in the causes, mechanisms, impact and prevention of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) exacerbations, and in the role of bacterial and viral infection in COPD exacerbations.

Dr James Allinson is a consultant respiratory physician at Royal Brompton Hospital, and an honorary senior clinical lecturer at the National Heart and Lung Institute. His research focuses upon how airways disease develops and, in particular, how to identify the early stages of COPD development.