HCP-Pt Conversations for situational understanding  

ZoomRx has used audio from unscripted, real-world clinical appointments to compare the patient experiences between COPD and Asthma. Biologic treatments are not yet available for COPD patients but much of the treatment discussions between the two indications share a lot of similarities. Below we look into some analogous situations from patients with COPD and Asthma and their doctors to see what we can learn from them.

Drivers for Treatment Switch

Treatment decisions are informed by the amount of ad-hoc medication usage patients need, this applies to both conditions, whether the ad-hoc usage is in the form of rescue inhalers, nebulizers, or steroids.

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COPD
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/0:48
HCP: Okay, well, currently, the Anoro and or the Spiriva, basically, you're on two of the three possible medicines that can be used for COPD, and we kind of determine how well or not well a person is controlled by how frequently they have to use rescue inhalers.
Patient: Yeah.
HCP: And if you're using a Rescue Puffer or a Nebulizer daily, clearly that tells me that it's not as optimally controlled as it could be. So I can't help but think that you might benefit from switching from the Anoro and Spiriva, in fact, if you're using that to just Trelegy once a day by itself.

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Asthma
0:00
/0:25
Patient So the last, the three weeks, four weeks perhaps three to four weeks that I was on steroids, nebulizer four times a day. Steroids, I think almost a month at that point. Very long, very prolonged recovery back to feeling my, back to feeling okay

Target Symptoms

The symptoms doctors focus on improving vary across conditions but have commonalities to them. COPD conversations focused more on general function and quality of life, while Asthma conversations focused on coughing and wheezing episodes. In both indications, the goal is to bring symptoms under control without the need for acute medications.

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Asthma
0:00
/0:14
HCP You find yourself limited with regard to your breathing or coughing or something else with regard to exercise?                  
Patient: It starts a coughing fit and starts a tightness.

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COPD
0:00
/0:12
HCP With his lung function so low, this should improve it. It should improve the quality of his life. That's what we're looking at.
Third Person: Okay. Because that is the tiredness, too, because of the hard breathing that he is.

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COPD
0:00
/0:12
HCP My goal is for you to maintain your independence and your functional status. So I think it's time for me to switch you from the Symbicort to a new inhaler called Trelegy.


Biologic Discussions For Respiratory Conditions

While not yet available for COPD, biologics are introduced confidently by doctors who are looking to address their Asthma patient's persistent symptoms. Injections are positioned as an infrequent and therefore simpler form of administration, and the symptom benefits are a focus of their discussion.

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Asthma
0:00
/0:24
HCP There's different kinds of biologics that are out there right now that we can utilize. And depending on what your biomarkers look like, tell us which ones might be better to try. Which is really the next step. And we're looking at what you're taking right now. You're on the Breo, you're on the three drugs. You have the Breo + Spiriva + Singular. So the question is, what can we do in the next you know to try to cut down on the coughing and wheezing and all the difficulty you're having.

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Asthma
0:00
/0:32
HCP So there, there are medicines out there called biologic medications. That you give yourself a shot yourself.
Patient Mm-Hmm.
HCP Anywhere from every two weeks to every eight weeks depending upon which medicine we choose. It can be every 2 weeks, every 4 weeks or every 8 weeks. Depending upon which medicine that we choose. And what it does is, it gets these things under control to the point where you no longer need to keep taking steroids. I'm sure I've told you many times before that taking too many steroids is not good.


In these examples, we can see that doctors are keeping patient outcomes front of mind when making treatment decisions for their Asthma and COPD patients.

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