Results from a long-term epidemiologic study conducted by researchers at the Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons suggested that one of the oldest race-based formulas used in lung function diagnosis should be changed as it is found to not be significantly different from a race-neutral equation. The research, published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, also pointed out that the old methodology, which has been recommended and in use for long in the US and even globally, includes racial adjustments in defining the lung function and this leads to deprivation of the black people from treatment with COPD medications as compared to white people with the same test results.