FORT WORTH, Texas, March 3, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — A
new report released by the UNT Health Science Center shows that
residents of 12 counties in East Texas are breathing a little
easier due in part to a year-long education campaign conducted by
the health science center’s Center for
Professional and Continuing Education regarding the diagnosis
and treatment of chronic obstructive
pulmonary disease (COPD). The report shows that the
educational program contributed to approximately 50 percent fewer
hospital admissions due to complications of COPD, which saved the
Texas’ health care system $3.4 million.
The educational initiative, proposed and conducted by the UNT
Health Science Center and funded by Boehringer Ingelheim and Pfizer (NYSE:
PFE), educated more than 350 health care professionals in the
rural areas of East Texas improve their ability to talk to patients
about the condition and more accurately test for and treat
COPD.
COPD is responsible for one death every four minutes in the US
and at least 12 million cases remain undiagnosed. Between 2005 and
2008 in Texas, COPD was responsible for more than 109,000
hospitalizations costing more than $2.7 billion. The UNT
Health Science Center researched Texas health data and current
literature, which formed the basis of the proposal. The grant
requests were funded, and UNTHSC independently launched a series of
continuing medical education (CME) activities and follow-up cases
targeting the counties in East Texas with the highest rates of
preventable hospitalizations due to COPD.
“Almost immediately, we began seeing improvements in physician
co
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