Relevant guidelines:

Patients should receive regular face-to-face review to ensure correct inhaler technique, self-management (where appropriate) and concordance with agreed treatment. Information for patients is available at http://mylungsmylife.org/. Consider referring patients with COPD to pulmonary rehabilitation.

To achieve optimal compliance with inhaled therapy consider the following:

  • base the choice of inhaler device on patient acceptability, suitability and cost.
  • patients should only be given a device they can demonstrate they can use; many adults struggle to use metered dose inhalers (MDI) therefore dry powder inhalers (DPI) or other breath activated devices should be considered.
  • always take appropriate time to teach and check inhaler technique.
  • where possible use the same inhaler device if a patient requires a number of different inhaled medicines.
  • reduce the number of inhalers by use of appropriate combination products.