While researchers are hard at work developing novel therapeutics to improve care for patients with COPD, clinicians must find ways to optimize currently available treatments for their patients. However, with busy practices, it can be difficult for providers to balance their patient workload and stay current with the latest care guidelines and updates.

A group of specialists will review several strategies to improve survival, quality of life, and exacerbation rates for patients with COPD during the session, COPD: Making the Most Out of Current Therapies, Tuesday, October 8, at 9:15 am ET, in Room 210B at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center.

“There are some aspects of COPD management that aren’t quite clear in terms of best practices, and not all providers are familiar with the latest COPD guidelines or research,” said Session Chair, Daniel Howell, MBBS, MSc, Clinical Assistant Professor at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. “With this session, I hope we can address some of these areas where there might be controversy or a lack of familiarity.”

Dr. Howell will open the session by reviewing respiratory muscle training in COPD. Respiratory muscle weakness is a common symptom of COPD, along with the impaired function of patients’ lungs and airways. Dr. Howell shared that, typically, pulmonologists are less familiar with best practices for improving respiratory muscle strength than other symptomatic therapies. He will explore several current treatments to familiarize attendees with the options for their patients who are struggling with respiratory muscle weakness and when they should be deployed in treatment.

“We want to equip providers to know which devices to recommend, how to use them, and how to initiate a respiratory muscle training program,” Dr. Howell said. “These steps can lead to significant improvements in patients’ quality of life and dyspnea scores.”

Nicola Hanania, MD, MS, FCCP, Professor of Pulmonary Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, will lead a similar discussion on oxygen therapy for patients with COPD. In addition to reviewing the benefits of oxygen therapy, Dr. Hanania will also share an overview of the indications that signal oxygen therapy should be deployed and the various devices currently on the market.

As clinicians and researchers are aware, sometimes guidelines for practice can become outdated or fail to include considerations for gray areas of treatment. Sara Assaf, MD, Assistant Professor at the University of New Mexico, will aim to bridge the gap between the latest data for triple inhaler therapy and current guidelines.

“I would describe this as an area of uncertainty, as we have moved away from inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) for all-comers with COPD due to an increased risk of pneumonia without an associated clear benefit,” Dr. Howell said. “But for patients struggling with exacerbations, and therefore exposed to systemic cortical steroids, how do we identify the patients that should be on ICS? There are several factors that can make patient selection difficult.”

The final session presentation will analyze the benefits and potential issues associated with azithromycin and roflumilast. Both drugs are utilized to reduce the risk of hospitalization for patients with COPD, but which is better?

“We still don’t really know that,” explained Dr. Howell. “There may be different factors that should be accounted for when choosing between these medications.”

Jerry Krishnan, MD, PhD, Professor of Medicine and Public Health at the University of Illinois Chicago, will review the relevant considerations for providers and discuss some of his ongoing research investigating roflumilast vs azithromycin.