You are a clinical clerk completing your family medicine rotation. Mr. Jones arrives for his appointment. He is a 68-year-old male who has recently been diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (also known as COPD or emphysema). He is extremely short of breath during all of his activities of daily living and his ability to function has been severely compromised in the last few months. Given that Mr. Jones is receiving the standard pharmacological treatment for COPD, he wants to know if an exercise program would help him.

You have heard about a Pulmonary Rehabilitation Program offered at St. Mary's of the Lake and wonder if this would be beneficial to Mr. Jones or if this type of program would further compromise his poor respiratory status.

You ask Mr. Jones to return after you have investigated the program and determined if it will meet his needs; he schedules a return appointment in one week. Now you can get to work finding solutions to his problem!

You are new to the management of COPD, and so you should build your background knowledge on the topic by consulting a variety of resources: BMJ Point of Care, medical reference books, a recent review article, a research article with randomized controlled trials as a study design, and a Cochrane Review. These resources will help to guide your decision as to whether Mr. Jones should participate in the St. Mary's of the Lake Pulmonary Rehabilitation Program.

Photograph from Microsoft Clip Art Collection.