Abstract
Primary care spirometry services can be provided by trained primary care staff, peripatetic specialist services, or through referral to hospital-based or laboratory spirometry. The first of these options is the focus of this Standards Document. It aims to provide detailed information for clinicians, managers and healthcare commissioners on the key areas of quality required for diagnostic spirometry in primary care — including training requirements and quality assurance. These proposals and recommendations are designed to raise the standard of spirometry and respiratory diagnosis in primary care and to provide the impetus for debate, improvement and maintenance of quality for diagnostic (rather than screening) spirometry performed in primary care. This document should therefore challenge current performance and should constitute an aspirational guide for delivery of this service.
Keywords: diagnostic spirometry, spirometry, COPD, diagnosis, guideline, standards, primary care, general practice
Full Text
The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (868.9 KB).
Footnotes
MLL has accepted sponsorship for attending conferences from, has accepted lecture fees from, or has been on advisory boards or provided consultancy for, the following companies; GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), AstraZeneca (AZ), Chiesi, Merck Sharpe and Dohme (MSD), Merck, Altana Pharma, Novartis, MEDA Pharmaceuticals, 3M Pharmaceuticals, Schering Plough, Boehringer Ingelheim (BI), Alk-Abello and Ranbaxy. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the PCRJ, but was not involved in the editorial review of, nor the decision to publish, this article. PQ: no declared conflict of interest. RB: no declared conflict of interest. BC: no declared conflict of interest
SH has accepted sponsorship for attending conferences from, has accepted lecture fees from, or has been on advisory boards or provided consultancy for, the following companies; Altana Pharma, AZ, BI, GSK, MEDA Pharmaceuticals, MSD, Chiesi, Novartis and Schering Plough.
IS has recieved honouraria and support to attend international meetings from GSK, AZ, BI/Pfizer, Nycomed, TEVA and Chiesi. He is a trainer for Education for Health.