A new paper has been published following on from discussions in the REG ILD working group meetings which aimed to identify opportunities for earlier diagnosis of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) that are being missed in primary care.
IPF is difficult to distinguish from other lung diseases with 50% of cases being misdiagnosed, leading to a highly negative impact on patients’ quality of life. Patients who receive a diagnosis of IPF in the UK will have first presented in the primary care setting.
A historical clinical cohort study was carried out by reviewing primary care records in the years preceding their diagnosis by examining continuous medical records of patients over 40 years of age in the UK who had been diagnosed with IPF over a ten-year study period. They found that there was a progressive increase in healthcare resource utilisation leading up their diagnosis and suggested that it might be possible to diagnose IPF by identifying potential opportunities for earlier referral to specialists.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/resp.13836