Clinical practice guidelines are ubiquitous and are developed to provide recommendations for the management of many diseases, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The development of these guidelines is burdensome, demanding a significant investment of time and money. In Europe, the majority of countries develop their own national guidelines, despite the potential for overlap or duplication of effort. A concerted effort and consolidation of resources between countries may alleviate the resource-intensity of maintaining individual national guidelines. Despite significant resource investment into the development and maintenance of clinical practice guidelines, their implementation is suboptimal. Effective strategies of guideline dissemination must be given more consideration, to ensure adequate implementation and improved patient care management in the future.

2nd Department of Respiratory Medicine Institute of Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases Warsaw Poland

Clinic of Pulmonary Medicine and Respiratory Cell Research University Hospital Basel Switzerland

Department of Medicine Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine University Medical Center Giessen and Marburg Philipps University Marburg Member of the German Center for Lung Research Marburg Germany

Department of Pathophysiology and Transplantation University of Milan and Department of Internal Medicine Respiratory Unit and Adult Cystic Fibrosis Center Fondazione IRCCS Cà Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico Milan Italy

Department of Pneumology University Hospital Hradec Kralove Faculty of Medicine in Hradec Kralove Charles University Prague Hradec Kralove Czech Republic

Department of Respiratory Medicine and Allergology Skåne University Hospital Lund Sweden

Department of Respiratory Medicine Seinäjoki Central Hospital Seinäjoki Finland

Faculty of Medicine and Life Sciences University of Tampere Tampere Finland

Hospital de Santa Marta Centro Hospitalar de Lisboa Central Universidade Nova de Lisboa Lisbon Portugal

Pneumology Department University Hospital Vall d'Hebron Ciber de Enfermedades Respiratorias Barcelona Spain

Pulmonology Department Pulmonology Research Institute Russian National Medical University Moscow Russia

Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital Exeter UK

Service de Pneumologie et Soins Intensifs Respiratoires Hôpital Cochin Paris France

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