Panel discussion on ERS Statement – A core outcome set for clinical trials evaluating the management of COPD exacerbations

While COPD exacerbations are largely responsible for the morbidity and mortality of COPD, their management is suboptimal and remains unchanged for decades. One of the main reasons is that the design and conduct of clinical trials to test new treatments is very challenging. Selection of outcomes (endpoints) represent one of the challenges clinical researchers face.

More specifically, clinical trials evaluating the management of acute exacerbations of COPD assess heterogeneous outcomes, often omitting those that are clinically relevant or important to patients. An ERS Task Force was formed and developed a core outcome set, a consensus-based minimum set of important outcomes that are recommended to be evaluated in all future clinical trials on the management of COPD exacerbations, to improve their clinical value, quality, and comparability. This core outcome set was informed by global, multi-stakeholder consensus.

The selected outcomes reflect the main treatment objectives for COPD exacerbations. Beyond clinical trials, it is also important that these are also assessed in observational studies and to be considered in clinical practice.

Educational aims

During this session, we will describe the challenges that researchers face when conducting clinical trials of COPD exacerbations management. We will focus on the importance of core outcome sets and will describe the ERS COPD exacerbations core outcome set and how it was developed.

Topics

1. What delays the introduction of new effective treatments for COPD exacerbations?
2. What is a core outcome set and why it is important?
3. How was the ERS Core Outcome Set for COPD Exacerbations Management developed?
4. Which outcomes are included in the ERS COPD Exacerbations Core Outcome Set? How should they be assessed?

Format:

Each presenter will deliver a short presentation (~15 mins each), followed by a short discussion and questions from the audience.

Learning outcomes:
Following this webinar, participants will be able to: 

1. Underline the importance of evaluating outcomes (endpoints) that are important to patients, clinicians, and other stakeholders both in clinical practice and research.
2. Discuss the rigorous, multi-stakeholder approach that was used to inform the ERS COPD Core Outcomes Set, about the outcomes that were prioritised and the instruments (methods) that were recommended for assessing each of these outcomes.

CME credit

An application for accreditation of this webinar has been made to the European Board for Accreditation in Pneumology (EBAP) for 1 CME credit per 1-hour attendance. If accredited, the CME credit will be granted upon attendance of at least 60 minutes during the live webinar only.

What is a webinar?

A webinar closely simulates a lecture-based teaching experience. The speaker can interact with the audience, just as in a classroom setting. During the webinar, you will be asked to share your opinion on issues related to the topic using interactive polls.

All participants will be able to hear the lecturer and see the slides throughout the presentation. As a participant you will be able to pose questions or discuss ideas with the other participants via the text chat facility and the speaker will respond to the questions via the microphone.

Login guidelines

More information will be communicated in due course.

• Please log in to the webinar 20 minutes before it is scheduled to commence. If you have any technical difficulties whilst trying to log in or during the session please contact e-learning@ersnet.org.
• Check Central European Time.
• To achieve the best quality, we recommend to avoid downloading anything from the internet during your connection to the lecture and stopping all other programmes.
• Please also ensure that your audio settings are not set to mute and adjust the volume to a comfortable level.