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TOPLINE:

Patients with advanced chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) who followed telemedicine-mediated follow-up for over 3 months showed improved quality of life and inhaler usage technique compared with those following traditional in-person follow-up.

METHODOLOGY:

• Researchers conducted a prospective randomized controlled trial in 74 patients with stage III-IV COPD and prior hospitalization to assess the safety and efficacy of using telemedicine for follow-up.
• Patients were randomly assigned to the telemedicine group (median age, 71 years; 73% men) or control group (median age, 73 years; 75.7% men).
• The telemedicine group attended remote video consultations on day 10, at 1 month, and at 3 months post-baseline, whereas the control group attended standard face-to-face outpatient visits.
• Both groups were evaluated for the impact of COPD on patients’ health and daily life through the COPD Assessment Test (CAT) scores, adherence to inhaler treatment, and correct inhaler usage technique.

TAKEAWAY:

• At the 3-month follow-up, the telemedicine group showed significantly better CAT scores than the control group (P = .019), with significant improvements from baseline to the first visit (P = .006) and from the first to second visits (P = .027).
• Adherence to inhaler treatment was higher in the telemedicine group than in the control group, but the difference was not statistically significant (70.6% vs 55.9%).
• Correct inhaler usage was significantly more frequent in the telemedicine group than in the control group (91.4% vs 65.7%; P = .02).
• Mortality rates did not differ significantly between groups.

IN PRACTICE:

“Telemedicine is, therefore, recommended as a suitable modality for the follow-up of patients with COPD,” the authors of the study wrote.

SOURCE:

This study was led by Zeynep Sena Dogan, Faculty of Medicine, Gazi University, Ankara, Türkiye. It was published online on August 26, 2025, in BMC Pulmonary Medicine.

LIMITATIONS:

This study was limited by its single-center design and short follow-up period. Data on education level were not collected, and the control group lacked interim follow-up CAT scores. Additionally, the findings may not have been generalizable to patients with less severe disease.

DISCLOSURES:

This study received no specific grant support from any public, commercial, or nonprofit agencies. The authors declared having no competing interests.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.