Two things of importance here: I agree that seeing specialists is important. The problem is that none of us with COPD come just with COPD and nothing else. We have diabetes, heart issues, liver and kidney disease, depression and anxiety and a whole host of other things. We see specialists for all those things. We have the responsibility of trying to get all those specialists to at least know what all the others have done, and many of us can't do that. One of the biggest problems we have in health care in the US is that there are millions of people who can't manage it for themselves, specialists who don't know what the last guy did, and people who end up on more meds than they know what to do with. So do see your specialists, but insist that they talk with each other and with your primary care doc. If you can't do that, find a family member or friend who will do it for you. We could avoid a lot of needless hospitalizations and probably deaths if we did that.

The vast majority of family practice docs and internists, the docs who are most likely to be primary care or family physicians, have little or no experience or knowledge regarding COPD. Unfortunately, these are the docs who most people see, so they are the docs who miss the diagnosis of COPD when the evidence in right in front of them. If they do finally make the diagnosis, they are not current on medications or treatments. They know very little about supplemental O2 or the dispensing systems available. They've never heard of Pulmonary Rehab and are likely to tell the patient to go home, make sure their affairs are in order and wait to die. While there are some who do know COPD and can help the patient manage and control it, most do not.

This is why we need more advocates. We need to raise the awareness of COPD in the patient and medical communities and with the general public. If you're interested, let me know.

My doctors also share all of my reports but at the beginning I did not have a pulmonologist and he was able to help me much more than my GP and it was my oncologist that advised me to go to a Pulmonary doctor for the COPD because it was not his speciality. I like all of my doctors but each have their area of expertise.
Jan you seemed blessed with a very caring GP who is willing to work with your other doctors. Some are not as willing. It is very important that we all find doctors we like and trust.

My primary care Dr keeps track of my pulmonary, cardiologist and orthopedic treatments as each one sends a record to him whenever I visit. I have been with him a very long time ,though.

I just love my GP he is more then willing to work with me or any of my many doctors.. so I am blessed there.. I have a lung doc, 2 cancer docs etc. I go to Dartmouth Hitchcock Memorial Hospital or DHMC in Lebanon, NH They have a website where they list your medical history and follow up notes on your visits etc.. so its very helpful.

I personally would rather deal with my pcp. My experience with pulmonologist is that they are very cold, uncaring and did not do anything different than my doc did.