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EDITORIALS: David Price and Martin Duerden Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease BMJ 2003; 326: 1046-1047 [Full text]

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The Americanisation of British Medicine - COPD or CAO/CAL?

David J. Bihari   (15 May 2003)

Not so much Americanisation rather----

peter s barling   (20 May 2003)

The Americanisation of British Medicine - COPD or CAO/CAL? 15 May 2003
David J. Bihari, Associate Professor of Critical Care, University of New South Wales Prince of Wales Hospital, Sydney, Australia NSW 2031 Send response to journal: Re: The Americanisation of British Medicine - COPD or CAO/CAL?	I am surprised that the BMJ publishes an editorial entitled "Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease"! As a medical student in London in the late 1970s, I was taught that "COPD" was a very poor term used by Americans to describe three seperate diseases - chronic bronchitis, emphysema and asthma. My pedantic teachers emphasised that whilst there was considerable overlap between these conditions, an effort should be made to distinguish between them. Thus I was taught that a patient might present with the symptoms and signs of "chronic airflow obstruction" or "chronic airflow limitation" and it was the physician's job to make a diagnosis. Obviously, times have changed! Competing interests:   None declared
Not so much Americanisation rather---- 20 May 2003
peter s barling, gp OswestryNot so Send response to journal: Re: Not so much Americanisation rather----	Post Americanisation of diagnosis comes Computerisation of diagnosis in which we fit the patients pathology to what the computer will accept.Thus COPD provides a good box to put the diagnosis into,enabling some rationality of therapy and hopefully benefitingthe patient. Competing interests:   None declared