From Laënnec’s Stethoscope to the Magic of Imaging, Big Data and Artificial Intelligence: A Timeline of Precision Medicine for Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

In February 1675, Isaac Newton wrote a letter to his friend Robert Hooke in which he commented, “If I have seen further it is because I am standing on the shoulder of giants.” This statement is as valid today as it was then; in the field of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), the work of many “giants” of vision and perseverance has allowed us to stand on their shoulders. In this editorial, I summarize the work of some of those giants (Figure 1), whose ideas and work have complemented the deductive skills of good doctors to help us deliver precision-based COPD care.