Clinical Development and Research Applications of the Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Assessment Test.

The COPD Assessment Test (CAT) was developed by a multidisciplinary group of international experts in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) as a short, easy-to-use (paper or digital) tool to assess symptoms and impact of the disease. The CAT should facilitate and encourage meaningful discussions between healthcare professionals and patients, enabling reliable assessment of the impact over time of COPD on a person's life. It measures a number of symptoms, the total scores of which can be used to give an overall impact and severity score for a patient's COPD. Over the past 10 years the CAT has been widely used across a wide range of clinical practice settings, employed by international and national guidelines as an instrument for COPD severity stratification and management and has been included in many clinical trials. The CAT is managed by an International Governance Board to facilitate its broad adoption and ensure that it continues to be developed in the best interests of patients with obstructive lung disease. The CAT is available to patients, healthcare professionals, and researchers through a public website. The authors propose that the CAT be used as a clinical outcomes assessment drug development tool. This recommendation is based on its frequent use in clinical practice and in Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) to assess health status, as well as its frequent application as an entry criterion and efficacy outcome in clinical development programs.