Case Studies

Placing lung health on the agenda

Challenge: To recruit General Practitioners and the general public to participate in the Lung Census – the largest screening of lung function ever undertaken in Australia designed to gauge the state of the nation’s lung health with regard to Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).
Strategy: Ethical Strategies worked with The Australian Lung Foundation, the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, the Improvement Foundation and MediMark International to drive GPs to a custom built website to register to participate in the Lung Census. GPs were also targeted via partner communications channels and medical media relations. Furthermore, community screenings were undertaken at three universities in Sydney over a one week period.
Results: The Lung Census was a success with General Practitioners across Australia gathering rich and robust data that will help guide future strategies to raise awareness of the importance of lung function testing, and the earlier identification of COPD. The community screening events resulted in more than 1,500 people being screened, allowing for those with airways obstruction to be referred to their GP for medical follow-up.