Panel Discussion On-

Nomenclature of COPD: How important or relevant is it for India?

Introduction: The KEM Hospital Research Centre Pune has been involved in COPD related research in its Vadu Rural Health Program since past decade or more. While working in this field, we have realised that besides the fact that most clinicians in our country find it difficult to differentiate between Ashtma and COPD (pulmonologist are exception); it is even difficult for patients to understand it as a disease. Usually, patients need not know the technical details of a disease but what is more important for a patient acceptance of the disease is the name of the disease. For instance, you utter Diabetes or Cancer, Flu (not really influenza but any flu), Typhoid, or ASTHMA; the patient has clear (not necessarily right) ideas in mind and knows that this is a disease and treatment is a must. That doesn’t seem to happen for COPD. Patients are often confused by this Acronym. Though TB & HIV are understood as acronym, the basic difference in TB/HIV and COPD is that former are infections with fear inbuilt which is not the case with COPD. Hence, a name for COPD will be invaluable. Our understanding is that a good Nomenclature for COPD will prove beneficial to the medical fraternity to explain COPD to patients/general population as well as to the people at large in getting to know importance of the disease. We are confident, the present day pulmonologists will be putting in their lot of efforts in explaining COPD to their respective patients. Some clinicians in Maharashtra do use term like ‘Kala Dama’ as a name but I have seen that patient convert it into Asthma which actually poses challenges in management of such patients when the same patient goes shopping for treatment to another GP where he or she straight away tells the GP, “I have Asthma”.

We are organizing a panel discussion titled, “Giving a name to COPD: How important or relevant is it?”

Some of the top pulmonologists in the country are going to discuss this important issue in Indian context. The below panellists will participate.

 Sr.No.   Name of the Panellist   Designation and Institute 
 1.  Dr. Digambar Behra (Chairperson)  Director, Pulmonary Medicine, Fortis Health Care, Mohali, Punjab
 2.  Dr. Sanjeev Nair  Pulmonologist, Medical College Trivandrum, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala
 3.  Dr. Virendra Singh  President, Rajasthan Hospital, Rajasthan
 4.  Dr. Surya Kant Tripathi  Professor & Head Respiratory Medicine Department, KGMU,Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh
 5.  Dr. Sundeep Salvi  Director, Pulmocare Research and Education Foundation, Pune,Maharashtra
 6.  Dr. Aloke Ghoshal  Ex-President, Indian Chest Society, Medical Director, National Allergy Asthma Bronchitis Institute Kolkata, West Bengal
 7.  Dr. Parag Khatavkar  Consultant Pulmonologist, KEM Hospital Pune, Maharashtra
 8.  Prof. Sanjay Juvekar (Moderator/Facilitator)  Professor & Head, Vadu Rural Health Program, KEM Hospital Research Centre, Pune, Maharashtra

It is indeed our pleasure to invite you to attend this virtual panel discussion. Agenda for the discussion and names of the panellists are enclosed herewith. You may block the date and time (6th Jan 2022, 1400-1600 hours) and please feel free to circulate this amongst all those you know could benefit from attending the panel discussion.The agenda for panel discussion as follows:

 Time   Topic   Resource person/s 
 14:00 to 14:05   Welcome  Prof. Sanjay Juvekar 
 14:05 to 14:10   Introduction by panellists  All
 14:10 to 14:20   An overview of the panel discussion  Prof. Sanjay Juvekar 
 14:20 to 15:20   Panel Discussion (begins with opening remarks by the Chairperson)  Panellists 
 15:20 to 15:50   Open discussion also including Q&A  All attendees 
 15:50 to 15:55   Concluding Remarks  Dr. Digambar Behera 
 15:55 to 16:00   Vote of Thanks  Dr. Parag Khatavkar 

Joining details: Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88501111478?pwd=L21KR1JuSC9tUFRFR0lZVzR2TVQ5dz09

Meeting ID: 885 0111 1478
Passcode: 759275

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