Optimising COPD Inhalers - a Feasibility Study
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Optimised Inhalers to Reduce COPD Exacerbation Re-Admissions and Mortality - a Feasibility Study
IRAS ID
309854
Contact name
John R Hurst
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust
ISRCTN Number
ISRCTN16732324
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 9 months, 29 days
Research summary
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a common lung condition and ‘exacerbations’ are a common reason for hospital admission. Unfortunately, after people return home, more than four-in-ten will be re-admitted to hospital within 90 days, and more than one-in-ten will die. We believe that better use of inhaled medicines in people going home from hospital will reduce the risk of re-admission and death.
Inhaled medicines reduce the risk of COPD exacerbations and in 2019 the UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) issued new guidelines on how to use these. Both too little and too much medicine called ‘inhaled steroids’ can be a problem, but NICE did not give practical advice about how to work out who will benefit. In addition, patients may inadvertently make mistakes when using inhalers, and some patients don’t have strong enough breathing muscles to get the inhaled medicine deep into the lung. Our idea is that simple, practical advice on inhaler choice can reduce the risk of re-admission and death after exacerbation.
There are currently too many unanswered questions to go straight ahead and test our idea. This application is to complete all the necessary development work we first need. There are two main components to this development work.
1. We will design a simple tool that can be used by front-line health-care staff to assess the best choice of inhalers before a person goes home. This will happen before the project described in this application.
2. We will ask six clinicians to test the tool in a total of 300 patients, collecting information about how many changes to inhalers were made, and the views of health-care staff and patients about having their inhalers changed. We will also collect preliminary evidence on whether any inhaler changes reduced the risk of re-admission and death.REC name
West Midlands - Black Country Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
22/WM/0125
Date of REC Opinion
1 Jul 2022
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion