Respiratory medicine

Respiratory medicine involves the care of patients with all forms of respiratory disease. The specialty is interesting, wide and diverse. Respiratory specialists deal with over 30 different conditions, some very common and some rare. Care is given by multidisciplinary respiratory teams involving doctors, specialist respiratory nurses, community respiratory teams, respiratory physiotherapists and specialist respiratory technicians as well as other medical staff.

Some respiratory units are highly specialised and provide regional services, for example lung transplant, sleep-related medical problems and adult cystic fibrosis units, while in the majority of units a large proportion of the workload is acute respiratory and general medicine. Lung conditions account for about a third of emergency admissions. All respiratory trainees have to undergo intensive care training and many individuals now look for jobs that involve both critical care and respiratory work.

There are close links between the specialty and radiology, infectious diseases specialists and thoracic surgery. The specialist society (British Thoracic Society) has also developed very strong links with colleagues in primary care and has been very active in promoting best practise in the development of integrated respiratory care in the community.

Related RCP publications

Map of Medicine

The RCP has been working with Map of Medicine since 2008 to produce web-based knowledge support tools. There are 300 evidence-based clinical care maps covering all major areas of healthcare; including care maps for specific specialties.

Care map	Specialty	Date of expiry	External link to Map of Medicine
Interstitial lung disease	Respiratory medicine	30 November 2011	Access the interstitial lung disease care map
Asthma in adults	Respiratory medicine	27 January 2012	Access the asthma in adults care map
Smoking cessation	Respiratory medicine	27 April 2012	Access the smoking cessation care map
Bronchiectasis	Respiratory medicine	31 May 2012	Access the bronchiectasis care map
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)	Respiratory medicine	30 July 2012	Access the COPD care map
Community-acquired pneumonia	Respiratory medicine	30 July 2012	Access the community-acquired pneumonia care map