IG declares to have received speaking fees from Novartis, AstraZeneca, Menarini and GSK. MJG declares to have received speaking fees from Genzyme, GSK, Novartis, A. Menarini, Philips, Vitalaire, Praxair and Linde, and to be an Advisory Board member of the Resmed iCARE group. MvZ declares to have received speaking fees from Novartis, Boehringer Ingelheim, AstraZeneca, Teva Pharma, Tecnifar, Praxair and Vitalaire. FM declares to have received speaking fees from Novartis, AstraZeneca, Menarini, Mundipharma, TEVA and Boehringer Ingelheim. JM declares to have received speaking fees from GSK, Novartis, AstraZeneca, Menarini, Mundipharma and Boehringer Ingelheim, and to be an Advisory Board member of GSK. PS declares to have received speaking fees from Novartis Farma, Boehringer Ingelheim, Mundipharma, AstraZeneca and Linde Saúde.

Funding for this paper was provided by Novartis Portugal. Funding was used to access all necessary scientific bibliography and cover meeting expenses. Novartis Portugal had no role in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data, in the writing of the paper and in the decision to submit the paper for publication.

The online version of the article has been corrected and the publisher would like to apologize for any inconvenience caused.