Early diagnosis and treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: The costs and benefits of case finding

This perspective piece examined case finding in the setting of COPD, with topics including the clinical and societal burden of undiagnosed COPD, factors related to delayed or missed diagnosis of COPD, and ways of identifying and diagnosing COPD earlier in the disease course. A thorough overview of case-finding tools (eg questionnaires and/or handheld devices) was provided, including use of the COPD-6 electronic respiratory monitor, which the authors noted has been "widely tested", has "high accuracy in the diagnosis of COPD" and "could be of great diagnostic help in primary care settings with limited resources"