COPD patients prescribed a combination of any inhaled corticosteroid (ICS), long acting beta agonist (LABA) and long acting muscarinic antagonist (LAMA) will be switched to a single LABA/LAMA combination inhaler, stopping their ICS. They will be followed up for 12 months.
Participants are shown the four currently available LABA/LAMA combination inhalers and instructed on their use. The clinical specialist will use standard prompts in an effort to demonstrate the inhalers in an unbiased way. The participants will choose: Ultibro® (Breezhaler device) or Duaklir® (Genuair device) or Anoro® (Ellipta device) or Spiolto® (Respimat device) and they will be prescribed the inhaler of their choice provided they can demonstrate effective use.
Patients will be reviewed 4, 12, 26 and at 52 weeks after switching with clinical outcomes measured at these points. As this is a real-world open study the patients and GPs are instructed that treatments can be changed at any point as clinically indicated, including restarting an ICS.
