A new pilot project at St. Paul’s Hospital in Canada will follow COPD patients after their release from the hospital to teach them better disease management.

Four years ago, St. Paul’s started a pilot project to follow COPD patients after their release from hospital, meeting up with them in the community and teaching them how to better manage the disease. “Once we implemented this program we can reduce rates of hospitalizations by half,” Dr Don Sin said.

They believe that if the program were available to all COPD patients in British Columbia, Canada, within a period of five years there would be 9,600 fewer emergency room visits, 6,200 fewer hospitalizations and more than $100 million saved.

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