As one of the four major chronic diseases in the world, chronic respiratory diseases have a wide impact and great harm, which should undoubtedly attract widespread attention from all walks of life. Sadly, however, many patients do not take these conditions seriously enough. Professor Wang Ping of the Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine of the PLA General Hospital pointed out that although many patients have been battling these diseases for many years, even as long as one or two decades, their understanding and management of the diseases are not ideal, resulting in the disease not being effectively controlled, which continues to affect their quality of life.
In order to deeply analyze the whole process management strategy of chronic respiratory diseases, on the afternoon of July 26, the 19th 301 Academic Conference on Respiratory Diseases set up a special section on chronic disease management, and with "whole process management, free breathing" as the core topic, in-depth and detailed discussions were carried out on risk factor prevention, smoking cessation management, early diagnosis, marker identification and standardized treatment
Optimize chronic disease management through multiple pathways
Professor Huang Kewu from Beijing Chaoyang Hospital affiliated to Capital Medical University pointed out at the conference that the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and emphysema faces many challenges. Although mesenchymal cell and stem cell therapy has shown some potential in theory, the current clinical evidence is insufficient to confirm its effectiveness. In addition, biologics are widely used in the treatment of asthma, but their efficacy in the treatment of COPD and emphysema still needs to be further studied and verified.
"In the past, a doctor's 'first aid kit' might contain things like silver needles and herbs, but now it contains more advanced medicines and treatments." He further mentioned that doctors should not be limited to one treatment method when dealing with patients, but should keep an open and flexible mind and consider from multiple perspectives to ensure that patients can get the most appropriate treatment plan.
Among them, smoking is one of the significant factors associated with the incidence of COPD. In mainland China, the number of COPD patients is as high as 100 million, which makes it a major challenge for respiratory physicians to intervene professionally. Professor Zhou Wei of Beijing Hospital emphasized that screening should be given priority to smokers who are suspected of having normal chronic cough and sputum production.
Despite China's vast and uneven development, the threat to public health from smoking has shown striking uniformity across the country. Smoking-related mortality rates remain high in many cities, highlighting the serious health hazards of smoking. "Tobacco is the largest preventable causative factor facing healthcare professionals and presents a significant opportunity for respiratory physicians to intervene in the disease." Zhou Wei pointed out that medical personnel must realize that smoking is not only a bad habit, but also a chronic disease that needs to be taken seriously.
The implementation of tobacco control measures has significantly reduced the mortality rate from chronic respiratory diseases in mainland China. "Mortality from chronic respiratory diseases has fallen by about 40% over the past decade, largely due to the effective implementation of smoking control measures." However, in the treatment of COPD and asthma, the mainland still faces the problem of "three lows": low diagnosis rate, low drug treatment rate and low post-treatment control rate, Wang Ping said.
Therefore, how to optimize the management of chronic diseases has become an urgent problem to be solved. To this end, the team developed software to remotely monitor and manage patients with chronic respiratory diseases. The software organizes and tabulates the collected patient data to guide follow-up decisions for more effective management and follow-up of patients with chronic respiratory diseases.