Copd a social disease: inappropriateness and pharmaco-economics.the role of the specialist: present and future

Chronic respiratory diseases (crd), with particular regard to copd, constitute an epidemic in the full sense of the term, though they still go underdiagnosed and undertreated. the gard of the who came into being to improve this situation and has formulated important working recommendations. also italy has recognized the need to respond to the challenge posed by crds, inserting them in the top 4 priority diseases in the national health plan. following this, it commissioned the department of prevention of the ministry of health to implement gard in italy, through a specific program, and has given the regional health services network the task of producing guidelines for the management of copd. copd is one of the most significant health problems at international level and represents an enormous health and social problem for the community, negatively affecting patients and their families, the employment sector, the institutional network and, hence, society as a whole. in face of the ever growing need to reconcile the limited available economic resources with the increasing demand for well-being, the health services of industrialized countries are devoting more and more attention to the costs generated by healthcare in their own territories. crds, in particular, concern a large number of subjects and generate important health and social costs. the global impact of these diseases, in particular copd, has been the subject of an increasing number of pharmaco-economic studies published in the literature over the last few years. this international event, starting from the above summarized scenario, stresses the role played by the pulmonary specialist in detecting all the aspects of inappropriateness in the clinical course of copd and in giving an adequate basis for a correct assessment of pharmaco-economic issues in a disease with an increasing social impact. as such, the meeting fits perfectly with the goals and recommendations of gard for national and int. organizations