Device Helps Patients Avoid Intubation, Improve Outcomes, Reduce Cost

COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) is a lung disease associated with airflow obstruction. A chronic, debilitating, and sometimes fatal condition, COPD is one of the most common lung diseases, predicted to be the fifth leading cause of disease burden by the year 2020, according to the World Health Organization. Unlike heart disease and cancer, it is the only major disease seeing an increased death rate each year among both men and women.