Why a Framework?

Because respiratory health is everybody's business

Individually or collectively, everyone living in Canada is affected by respiratory disease. It impacts the quality of life for people living in Canada on many levels. People affected by respiratory disease face physical, emotional and even financial hardships as they try to cope with the increasing costs of therapies, the loss of their ability to work, decreased mobility and often their independence and quality of life.

Today, lung disease

  • affects one in five Canadians (six million in total),
  • is responsible for the majority of emergency room visits, and
  • causes one Canadian to die every 20 minutes.

Because the burden of lung disease affects the economy

For the year 2007, the estimated economic burden of respiratory diseases in Canada totaled $154 billion. Without proper intervention, the cost to our economy and the devastating effect on our quality of life will only increase.

Because a coordinated lung-health approach will help us to work better, together

Disease-specific strategies are important because they are patient-centred (i.e. a patient will identify as having asthma, not chronic disease). They are also important in identifying:

  • What is happening (programs, services, trends, etc.)
  • Where are the gaps? What can we do to fill the gaps
  • Are we being effective at responding to this disease?
From this starting point, the National Lung Health Framework can identify common issues, such as prevention concerns and co-morbidity, and identify which approaches are most effective when working in alignment with other disease strategies.