Please reference this document as follows:
From the Global Strategy for the Diagnosis, Management and Prevention of COPD, Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) 2007. Available from: http://www.goldcopd.org.

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) remains a major public health problem. It is the fourth leading cause of chronic morbidity and mortality in the United States, and is projected to rank fifth in 2020 in burden of disease caused worldwide, according to a study published by the World Bank/World Health Organization. Furthermore, although COPD has received increasing attention from the medical community in recent years, it is still relatively unknown or ignored by the public as well as public health and government officials.

In 1998, in an effort to bring more attention to COPD, its management, and its prevention, a committed group of scientists encouraged the US National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and the World Health Organization to form the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD). Among the important objectives of GOLD are to increase awareness of COPD and to help the millions of people who suffer from this disease and die prematurely from it or its complications.

The first step in the GOLD program was to prepare a consensus report, Global Strategy for the Diagnosis, Management, and Prevention of COPD, which was published in 2001. The report was written by an Expert Panel, which was chaired by Professor Romain Pauwels of Belgium and included a distinguished group of health professionals from the fields of respiratory medicine, epidemiology, socioeconomics, public health, and health education. The Expert Panel reviewed existing COPD guidelines and new information on pathogenic mechanisms of COPD, bringing all of this material together in the consensus document. The present, newly revised document follows the same format as the original consensus report, but has been updated to reflect the many publications on COPD that have appeared since 2001.

Since the original consensus report was published in 2001, a network of international experts known as GOLD National Leaders has been formed to implement the report’s recommendations. Many of these experts have initiated investigations of the causes and prevalence of COPD in their countries, and developed innovative approaches for the dissemination and implementation of COPD management guidelines. We appreciate the enormous amount of work the GOLD National Leaders have done on behalf of their patients with COPD.

In spite of the achievements in the five years since the GOLD report was originally published, considerable additional work is ahead of all of us if we are to control this major public health problem. The GOLD initiative will continue to bring COPD to the attention of governments, public health officials, health care workers, and the general public, but a concerted effort by all involved in health care will be necessary.

I would like to acknowledge the work of the members of the GOLD Science Committee who prepared this revised report. We look forward to our continued work with interested organizations and the GOLD National Leaders to meet the goals of this initiative.

We are most appreciative of the unrestricted educational grants from Altana, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Chiesi, GlasoSmithKline, Mitsubishi Pharma Corporation, Nikken Chemicals, Co,. Ltd., Novartis, and Pfizer that enabled development of this report.

A. Sonia Buist, MD
Portland, Oregon, USA
Chair, GOLD Executive Committee