ICC collaboration with JTD
University of Washington School of Medicine, Gig Harbor, WA, USA
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ICC COLUMN: The Voice of the Patient
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J Thorac Dis 2012;4(4):343-344. DOI: 10.3978/j.issn.2072-1439.2012.08.05
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 Following the establishment of the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) in 1992, there
were several global efforts to improve COPD diagnosis and care by these leaders. In 1996
the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) was founded by
these leaders and Dr. Grouse founded the International COPD Coalition to help unite the
COPD patient organizations of the world and the US COPD Coalition in collaboration
with NHLBI with the goal of uniting US lung organizations, COPD patient organizations,
and government agencies to prevent COPD and care for COPD patients.
The ICC has partnered with key international organizations who are committed to
COPD care, including the European Federation of Asthma and Airways Diseases Patient
Organizations (EFA), the Australian Lung Foundation (ALF), the Japanese Respiratory
Society (JRS), the Chinese COPD Alliance, WHO’s Global Alliance against Chronic
Respiratory Diseases (GARD), the Journal of Thoracic Disease (JTD), and the World
Organization of Family Doctors (Wonca).
In 2010, under the leadership of ICC Chairs, Profs. Nanshan Zhong, Rongchang
Chen, and Yousser Mohammad, ICC pioneered the COPD Patient’s Bill of Rights that
COPD patient groups worldwide could work with their national health ministries to
advocate for COPD paitents (1). The ICC has established an evidence-based resource
center concerning the global COPD burden of disease, and is working with the
Chinese leaders of the early COPD diagnosis initiative and Wonca to support improved
respiratory health and the prevention and early diagnosis of COPD globally (2-5).
These collaborations and the leadership of the Journal of Thoracic Disease in
providing scientific evidence and perspective to the physicians of the world to benefit
COPD patients have led ICC to endorse the Journal and to participate in providing a
regular ICC column in the Journal with the global efforts of COPD patient organizations
to work with lung physicians and experts to deal with the global COPD epidemic. In the next issue of the Journal, Mr. John Walsh, the Executive Director
of the US COPD Foundation and close collaborator of the US
COPD Coalition, the NHLBI, and the Alpha-1 Foundation,
will present the details of the highly successful activities of the
Foundation in the US in a way that should assist and inspire
other COPD organizations worldwide.
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ICC development
The International COPD Coalition was founded in 2003 as
a global umbrella organization for all national COPD patient
organizations. Its 75 full member national organizations and 28
participating members have endorsed the ICC’s constitution
and by-laws and its goals and objectives. Overall direction of
the non-profit organization comes from the Chairs, currently
Profs. Zhong Nanshan and Chen Rongchang from Guangzhou,
China, as well as the 10 member global Board of Directors. Dr.
Lawrence Grouse is the Executive Director.
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ICC mission statement
The purpose and mission of the organization is to lead a global
coalition of COPD patient organizations to promote health and
improved quality of life among COPD patients through:
• planning, managing, and financing projects to improve the health and access to care of COPD patients in collaboration with an international coalition of COPD patient organizations; • raising COPD awareness worldwide in collaboration with an international coalition of COPD patient organizations and other stakeholders in COPD; • providing support for preventive, diagnostic, and therapeutic measures for COPD as part of basic healthcare; • promoting better care and quality of life for patients with COPD. These purposes shall be achieved especially in cooperation
with recognized medical and professional organizations, NGOs,
health authorities and ministries, health care providers, and
other interested international organizations.
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Acknowledgements
Disclosure: The author declares no conflict of interest.
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ICC description
We are a non-profit organization comprised of healthcare
professionals and patients, and we work with other COPD
patient organizations globally to further educational, awareness
and other projects to improve the health and access to care of
COPD patients.
COPD is the 3rd greatest killer worldwide but most people,
including healthcare professionals, do not know about it. It is a
disease that deprives its victims of their breath; however, it is a
preventable and treatable disease. It is our mission to improve
COPD prevention and treatment worldwide.
In 2012, ICC plans to promote and implement the early
diagnosis of ICC COPD initiative globally. ICC is collaborating
with the Journal of Thoracic Disease in a regular ICC column
to share COPD patient issues with the global thoracic medicine
community. We intend to further expand the ICC Evidence-
Based Resource Center to document COPD care best practices
for all of our 75 ICC Member Organizations, and to provide
advocacy materials including the ICC COPD Patients’ Bill
of Rights. All of our materials will be freely available on our
open access ICC website (www.internationalcopd.org). ICC’s
Executive Committee and GRADE Committee will review
COPD practice guidelines for compliance with WHO, GRADE,
and AHRQ/IOM requirements. It will continue its collaboration
with the WHO’s Global Alliance against Chronic Respiratory
Diseases (GARD), and it will develop patient teaching videos for
global use in COPD patient education. These activities will be
supported by the grants that ICC receives.
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References
Cite this article as: Grouse L. ICC collaboration with JTD. J Thorac Dis
2012;4(4):343-344. doi: 10.3978/j.issn.2072-1439.2012.08.05
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