Online COPD resource brings patients and providers together
By Elizabeth Deprey
Updated Mon November 21, 2011
YARMOUTH, Maine - HME providers hoping to reach out to potential COPD patients have a new resource: COPD-TV.com.
The new website, founded by Greg Shockey, president of Lung Centers of America, is intended to offer user-friendly educational content for patients with COPD.
"It's an idea whose time has come," he said. "There's a lot of resources on the net, but it's kind of a hodgepodge of different things."
His solution: a website that offers two- to three-minute video clips with information ranging from breathing techniques and exercises to information about the disease itself, as well as written resources and a provider directory.
"There are 24 million people with COPD out there, and most are not getting the effective treatment that they need," he said. "We're trying to bring the providers and the patients together in an effective way."
Shockey is currently looking for anyone who offers services to COPD patients throughout the country to include in the provider directory, including HME providers. A free listing will provide contact information, and providers can pay for an upgrade to include logos and web addresses.
"There's not really a good active provider directory anywhere," said Shockey.
HME providers might also want to take advantage of COPD TV's video offerings, including expert interviews, facility tours and product demonstrations.
"The overall objective is to create a website that's the go-to place for COPD," Shockey said.
Shockey planned to launch COPD-TV.com in November.
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