COPD Assessment Test (CAT)

When it activates

Scribeable activates a calculator from the encounter. The COPD Assessment Test (CAT) can activate when the transcript or pasted chart context documents any of these:

• COPD symptom quantification
• COPD treatment monitoring
• COPD GOLD group assignment
• COPD follow-up assessment

Note-type scope: it activates on notes whose subject resolves to pulmonology, hospital medicine. A note that resolves to another subject does not carry it even when the clinician's specialty matches; a note with no resolvable subject (a generic consultation) falls back to the specialty match.

Inputs the note needs

1 input. Each is resolved from the transcript, the pasted chart context and charted labs; at this calculator’s tier a missing input is never requested, and a missing required input keeps the score out of the draft.

Scoring

8 questions each scored 0-5. Total 0-40. Covers cough, phlegm, chest tightness, breathlessness, activity limitation, confidence, sleep, and energy.

Interpretation

<10: Low impact. 10-20: Medium impact. 21-30: High impact. >30: Very high impact. CAT ≥10 classifies patient as "many symptoms" for GOLD grouping.

Evidence

Sources carried in Scribeable's citation registry for this calculator; guideline version: Jones PW et al. 2009.

• Jones PW et al. Development and first validation of the COPD Assessment Test (CAT)Jones et al. (CAT) 2009 · 2009 · Level I · link last verified 2026-03-28

How Scribeable handles it in the note

When an encounter activates the COPD Assessment Test (CAT) (its highest tier is recommended), Scribeable does not ask you for missing inputs. The score is computed in code from whatever inputs resolve from the transcript, the pasted chart context or charted labs; a computed value is written into the draft only when every required input already resolves.

The score is computed in code from the resolved inputs, not recalled by the language model. A stated COPD Assessment Test (CAT) value is compared against the computed one when the draft's structured summary carries it; a disagreement found there is flagged to the second drafting pass, which is instructed to correct the score and its interpretation, unless Scribeable has supplied the computed value to that pass, in which case the value the draft writes is checked against the supplied one and a detected difference is shown beside the note for you to adjudicate rather than silently rewritten.

Classified as a risk score: activated strictly, by a documented trigger, never by a permissive reading of the encounter.

Related calculators

• GOLD COPD ClassificationClassifies COPD severity by spirometry and symptom burden using the GOLD 2024 framework for treatment guidance
• Modified Medical Research Council Dyspnea ScaleGrades dyspnea severity for COPD symptom assessment and treatment decisions
• BODE IndexPredicts mortality in COPD patients using body mass index, airflow obstruction, dyspnea, and exercise capacity
• Berlin Questionnaire for OSAScreens for obstructive sleep apnea risk to guide polysomnography referral
• ARISCAT ScorePredicts postoperative pulmonary complications to guide perioperative respiratory optimization
• CURB-65 ScoreEstimates pneumonia mortality and guides disposition

Can activate in: Internal Medicine, Primary Care, Pulmonology, Hospital Medicine.