In the national project Health Japan 21 （2nd edition） put forward in April 2013, the Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare specified chronic obstructive pulmonary disease （COPD） as a targeted lifestyle-related disease, in addition to cancer, heart diseases, and diabetes, and concluded that the establishment of COPD management systems is an important issue to maintain Japanese people’s healthy lives, as the number of deaths from this disease is likely to rapidly increase in the future. In Tokushima Prefecture, the mortality rate associated with COPD has been stably high over the past years ; the nation’ s highest in 2010 and third highest in 2011. In some regions of the western area, particularly mountainous regions, and southern area of the prefecture, the standardized mortality rate among males is double the national mean, highlighting the necessity of rapidly taking countermeasures. Under such circumstances, the Tokushima City Medical Association regarded COPD management as a priority item when developing annual projects this year, and organized the COPD Management and Smoking Cessation Promotion Committee in May. The medical association also presented a tentative plan to conduct association-led individualized COPD assessment at its own expense to the local government of Tokushima, with a view to materializing COPD assessment projects to clarify, evaluate, and analyze the actual situation, including surveys on citizens’ recognition of COPD and those conducted by family doctors to examine the statuses of their patients, involving the local government in the future. During deliberations to examine the feasibility of this plan, the local government proposed a new COPD assessment plan based on the conventional mass pulmonary cancer examination system, in order to deal with those at a high risk of COPD ; following some revisions, the new plan was adopted.
The plan consisted of the following steps :
> Targeting those meeting the 3 diagnostic criteria specified in the pulmonary cancer interview sheet for COPD assessment : 1） age of 60 or over ; 2） previous smoking habit ; 3） presence of at least one of the subjective COPD symptoms （chronic coughing, sputum, and shortness of breath during activity）.
> Providing these patients with a free-consultation coupon to undergo assessment in a registered primary medical examination institution.
> Conducting airway obstruction evaluation in primary medical examination institutions using the mass COPD screening interview sheet （COPD-PSTM） and spirometry.
> Conducting insurance-covered medical examinations, such as the respiratory function test, chest XP, and CT scans, in secondary medical examination institutions （chest physicians） to establish a definite diagnosis.
> Reporting the results of these examinations to family doctors.
> If treatment is necessary, developing initial pharmacotherapy plans as part of the standardized treatment of COPD for approximately 3 months, which are implemented by family doctors.
In consideration of the rapidly aging Japanese population, the number of potential COPD patients aged 40 and over is expected to reach nearly 7 million soon. In order to deal with such a large number of COPD patients, it is primary care physicians’ duty to provide early diagnosis and treatment, and local medical associations are charged with promoting spirometry through their activities as part of COPD assessment projects, aiming to establish cooperative systems to manage the disease between primary care physicians providing treatment during the stable period and chest physicians providing it during the exacerbation period.
As future perspectives, spirometry-promoting seminars to be held in clinical environments are being considered ; participation in these seminars will be a requirement for registered primary COPD examination institutions, and those who have completed such programs will be Tokushima City Medical Association-certified COPD specialists （tentative name）. It is expected that these approaches to carry out the nation’s first COPD assessment projects will improve clinical environments in communities, such as support for smoking cessation, medical professionals’ knowledge of COPD, and the standardization of diagnosis and treatment
