The Alpha-1 Foundation is pleased to announce the new 2004 COPD & Alpha-1 Education Days Series. This series incorporates the successful Alpha-1 Education Days and includes outreach to the COPD community offering educational programming to individuals affected by Alpha-1 and COPD. Where possible, there is a separate track to provide CME's for physicians and CEU's for respiratory therapists and nurses.

Co-sponsors of this series include the COPD Resource Network , the Alpha-1 Foundation, the Alpha-1 Association , and where noted, the National Institutes of Health Council (NIH), National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) Clinical Research Network (CRN) and, where noted, Alpha-1 Clinical Resource Centers (A1F CRC).

This expanded education series has come about, in large part, by the announcement of the new American Thoracic Society (ATS) and European Respiratory Society (ERS) guidelines calling for testing of all adults with symptomatic emphysema, COPD, or asthma with airflow obstruction that is incompletely reversible after aggressive treatment. The program template for the series is designed to continue the educational objectives of the Alpha-1 Education Series and promote a greater awareness and testing for Alpha-1 within the COPD population.

Unrestricted educational grants have been provided for the 2004 Alpha-1 and COPD Education Day Series by: AlphaNet , Aventis , Baxter , Bayer HealthCare Biological Products Division , Dey, L.P. and GlaxoSmithKline . Series exhibitors include: Accredo Therapeutics and Coram Health Care , also through an unrestricted educational grant.

For more information on organizing an Alpha-1 Education Days please contact Brenda Buenaventura, Alpha-1 Foundation, at (888) 825-7421, ext. 242, or email,