The first in a series of multidisciplinary steering committee meetings was held in London, UK on 11 February 2013 to discuss the development of a patient-focused programme for pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), with the goal of gaining a better understanding of the patient’s perspective of this disease, and improved patient care.
The “Opening Lines” project is aimed at encouraging and improving communication between health care professionals and patients and encouraging conversations about psycho-social issues related to the disease.
The outputs of this project are a series of “advice cards”:
Cards for health care professionals
- Folder copy: Identifying psychosocial issues associated with PAH patients
- Communicating effectively with your patient
- Advising patients on how to communicate with those closest to them
- Talking to your patient about their PAH
- Talking to patients about the emotional impact of having PAH
Cards for people with PAH
- Folder copy: support cards for people with pulmonary arterial hypertension
- Talking about PAH with those closest to you
- Getting the right support: talking to your healthcare professional
- Living with PAH
- Making plans
The “Opening Lines” project was supported by Pfizer Ltd, United Kingdom.