Can We Identify & Treat COPD Earlier? Findings from the BEACON Study

Featuring Wisia Wedzicha, MD, PhD, ATSF

 

Description

Wisia Wedzicha, MD, PhD, ATSF has dedicated her professional life to investigating COPD, a disease that affects approximately 400m people—about 5% of the world population. Her latest work is the BEACON Study (British Early COPD Network cohort). While most COPD studies involve older populations with diagnosed disease, BEACON aims to identify very early signs of COPD in young smokers (aged 30-45). Results from this novel multi-center study were recently published in the AJRCCM (“the Blue Journal”) as the cover story. Join us as we ask Prof. Wedzicha about BEACON, her research in COPD, and about her time as editor-in-chief at the AJRCCM and Thorax journals.

Highlights

Dr. Wedzicha talks about the power of fSAD/vDPM to detect COPD in young smokers who are not known to have COPD by traditional methods.

“What we found is increased small airway disease already in these 30-45 year old smokers who are not under medical supervision for their lung disease.“

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Speaker Bio

Wisia Wedzicha, MD, PhD

Professor of Respiratory Medicine at the National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College, UK

Wisia Wedzicha is Professor of Respiratory Medicine at the National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College, UK. She qualified from Somerville College, Oxford University and St Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical College, University of London. She was elected as Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci) in 2013 and is an NIHR Senior Investigator.

Professor Wedzicha has a major interest in the causes, mechanisms, impact and prevention of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) exacerbations, and in the role of bacterial and viral infection in COPD exacerbations. She directs an active research group specializing in COPD exacerbations and has published extensively on this topic.

Professor Wedzicha has served as editor at multiple journals.

  • She was Editor in Chief of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care (“the Blue Journal”) from 2015 to 2021.
  • She was Editor in Chief of Thorax from 2002 to 2010.

Professor Wedzicha chaired the English Department of the Health Home Oxygen Clinical User Group, and was a member of the Guideline Development Group for the revision of the National Institute for Healthcare and Clinical Excellence COPD Guidelines. She was a member of the Programme Board for the COPD National Clinical Strategy.