SELFIS project: Implementation evaluation of the LWWCOPD program

Disease-specific self-management can improve health status and reduce
hospitals admissions in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Self-management programs aim at teaching skills needed to carry out specific medical regimens and increase the own control of the disease. Because patients with chronic disease need to manage their disease day by day, the responsibility falls most heavily on themselves. Therefore, a patient-centered approach for patients with chronic conditions such as COPD that emphasize patient counselling
and self-management as key components has been called for since long.
The well-known “Living well with COPD” program (LWWCOPD) aims to increase the quality of life in patients with COPD by integrating new healthy behaviors and skills on a day-to-day basis. The LWWCOPD program has already been validated in different countries, recently also in Switzerland. Seven Cantonal Lung Associations of Switzerland have planned to implement the LWWCOPD program from January 2018 and integrate it for the first time in their already existing offers of preventive and therapeutic services. The aim of the SELFIS project is to accompany the implementation of the LWWCOPD program and evaluate both its implementation and impact among COPD patients throughout Switzerland.