World COPD Day 2023
Overview
Organization: Breathe California of the Bay Area,Golden Gate, and Central Coast
Start Date: 10/2023
End Date: 11/2023
Primary Goal: Goal 1: Empower people with COPD, their families, and caregivers to recognize and reduce the burden of COPD.
Secondary Goal(s):
- Goal 3: Collect, analyze, report, and disseminate COPD-related public health data that drive change and track progress.
Objective(s):
- Increase public awareness of the risk factors and symptoms of COPD so that earlier diagnosis of symptomatic individuals becomes the norm
- Increase the effectiveness and variety of outreach communication campaigns and activities that utilize evidence-based approaches to raise awareness of COPD, particularly among those at high risk, and help people diagnosed with COPD manage the disease
- Expand opportunities to increase COPD awareness across the public-private spectrum
- Facilitate dissemination of data and analyses. Report the prevalence of COPD in accordance with the requirements of public health and health care organizations
- Put into action prevention strategies that are proven effective in addressing the 80 percent of COPD deaths due to smoking
- Strengthen the public health infrastructure for addressing COPD
Collaboration: Student interns and service learners from San Jose State and other local colleges.
Health professionals as volunteers
Health care districts and city seniors program for promotion.
Speakers
Activity Type: Patient education, Event, Campaign, Provider education, Training
Activity Description
On November 14, Breathe California of the Bay Area Golden Gate and Central Coast hosted a free, virtual educational conference on Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). The workshop and activities reached 96 people. Attendees included patients, caregivers, public health and respiratory therapy students, medical professionals, and others interested in the topic.COPD refers to a group of diseases that cause airflow blockage and breathing-related problems, including chronic bronchitis and emphysema, and is the fourth leading cause of death in the US. About 10 million people have been diagnosed with the disease, and around 24 million people remain undiagnosed. COPD is mainly caused by smoking, but it is also caused by air pollution, including workplace exposures.
The workshop started with our esteemed keynote speaker, Dr. Antonello Punturieri, Ph.D., M.D., who is a Program Officer in the Division of Lung Diseases (DLD) at National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Dr. Punturieri presented on the status of COPD in the U.S., current NHLBI work, and emerging treatments. He also held an “Ask a Doctor” session after his presentation and answered audience’s questions from medication to cleaning respiratory therapy equipment.
Another virtual workshop speaker was Shilpa Datt, RPT, CCM, CHM, Physical Therapist, Patient Assessment Coordinator at Kentfield Specialty Hospital. Shilpa discussed the importance of energy conservation techniques and provided tips for daily living activities of COPD patients.
Our third speaker, Kalpanadevi Thiyagarajan, BE (Electronics), RYT -200, Senior Yoga Faculty of Yoga Bharati presented and led interactive Breathing Exercises with all attendees virtually. She also provided information on how to improve the quality of life for COPD patients, such as how breathing exercises can calm COPD patients and increase vitality.
All the attendees participated and enjoyed our educational Bingo game, for which we had 3 winners. Additionally, we did raffle prizes where we had 5 winners.
Audience
General Audience: Patients, Caregivers or family members, At-risk populations, General Public, Health professionals
Focused Audience: Hispanic/Latino, Asian or Pacific Islander, African American/Black, Caucasian/White, Men, Women
Program Reach: State, Local: California: Local: Santa Cruz, SF Bay Area, CA; International: Bangladesh
Type of Area: Urban, Suburban, Rural
Setting: Home, Online
Cost and Funding Sources
Since it was all on-line, the primary cost was staffing for program development and promotion. This was minimized through the use of student interns and volunteer health professionals. It also required the use of communications software (Zoom) that could handle a large crowd of participants, which the agency had already purchased, and prizes to incentivize participation, which were donated by local merchants (plus mailing costs to distribute them). Due to these contributions to the program, the total expense was approximately $1,500.Impact Analysis
We had 96 attendees. Among the registrations, it was a very mixed crowd with 35 students from different schools and colleges (High schoolers to Graduate students), 9 health care workers, 17 COPD patients, 2 caregivers for someone with COPD and others just wanting to know more about COPD. The virtual format apparently attracted the large student group this year who were mostly public health students from near-by San Jose State University and students from University of California, Santa Cruz.From poll input:
Why they came:
65% came because of the expert speakers, 25% came for the Breathing Exercises, and 10% came for the games and prizes.
How they heard about the conference: 18% from social media, 57% from word of mouth; and 25% from emails and snail mail.
What they will do with the information they learned: 41% will use it to put tips into action; 25% will share this information with the person they care for; 15% will use information to seek testing or more information; 16% will use information to frame questions for their healthcare provider and 3% is other.
Advice or Lessons Learned
We found that a virtual event can be very successful. We learned that it is still easier to get people enrolled virtually. When working with a virtual platform for an event, it is really important to over-plan for any technical difficulties and make sure all presenters who are involved and practice their roles before the event starts. We have started our practice session 1 hour earlier before the actual event started to make sure that we will not face any technical issues and practice ourselves more and more so that we can deliver our resources smoothly during the event.Related Links
Contact Information
Breathe California of the Bay Area,Golden Gate, and Central Coast
As the local clean air and healthy lungs leader, Breathe California of the Bay Area fights lung disease in all its forms and works with its communities to promote lung health. Sharmin Sultana is the Community Outreach Specialist.
San Jose
California