TheGlobal Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) is a non-profit organization started by theWorld Health Organization and the USNational Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute in 1997 to improve care forchronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).^[1][2] They have organized the annualawareness day,World COPD Day, every November since 2002.^[3]

This organization issues recommendations for the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and related medical conditions. GOLD issued its first formal recommendations in 2001.^[2] Their approach departed from previous medical guidelines in two significant respects:

• Previous recommendations were usually written by groups of experts, usually from a single medical specialty, partly on the basis of their own experiences.^[2] They were the first to evaluate thelevels of evidence that supported their recommendations.^[2] GOLD's approach toevidence-based medicine was more rigorous than the previous COPD recommendations, but other organizations, including theNational Institute for Health and Care Excellence, use more complex systems.^[2]
• GOLD's recommendations are also updated more frequently than was typical in the past.^[2] This allows the recommendations to include newer evidence.

The GOLD grading system for classifying the severity of COPD is widely used worldwide.^[4]

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