Respiratory medicine still faces many challenges that are brought on by modern lifestyles. The population is aging, many individuals are still unable to quit smoking, and environmental factors, like air pollution, remain largely unsolved. With these, the global burden of respiratory disease has been predicted to continue increasing in the years to come.

1. Tackling the
challenges of
respiratory
medicine
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Respiratory medicine still faces many challenges that are brought on by modern lifestyles. The population
is aging, many individuals are still unable to quit smoking, and environmental factors, like air pollution,
remain largely unsolved. With these, the global burden of respiratory disease has been predicted to
continue increasing in the years to come.
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By 2020, it is expected that 11.9 million of the 68 million deaths worldwide will be due to lung diseases.
Poverty rates and the consequential limited access to healthcare play a significant role in this as social
inequality has been noted as a leading cause of respiratory-related deaths than in other disease areas.
With these projections in mind, it is therefore important for healthcare professionals, especially those that
specialize in respiratory medicine, to shift their focus to include not only the common respiratory ailments
but also rare illnesses found in underfunded areas.

2. TAGS: critical care, critical care specialist, health, medicine, pulmonary medicine, respiratory medicine
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Respiratory diseases are, by nature, complex and they pose many challenges to healthcare professionals.
Because of this, a multidisciplinary approach is necessary in order to improve outcomes in treatments and
therapies for patients with chronic lung diseases. By sharing their experiences and knowledge, medical
professionals can provide a strong evidence base for policy makers to arrive at a viable solution for the
challenges in respiratory medicine.
Lisa Marie Cannon, MD, specializes in pulmonary and respiratory care medicine. Find more resources
about this medical specialization on this Facebook page.