Catherine Tutt RN, RM

Who is Catherine Tutt?

The FAQs describe her as “a retired Practice Nurse Specialist with a special interest in Respiratory Care who has widely lectured on both asthma and COPD”, and give her name as Catherine Tutt RN, RM. She can be reached through the contact page.

How did she help create the calculator?

She and Dr Masters won the 2006 National Guidelines in Practice Award, COPD section, for their holistic approach to COPD care. Having decided together to be more proactive in detecting COPD, which often has no symptoms, they recognised the need for a simple pack year calculator.

The first working version was produced in Excel by Caroline MacFarlane in January 2007 and tested at Highfield Surgery for three months. At lectures on their approach to COPD management in primary care, Catherine and Nigel were asked to provide the calculator to other healthcare teams. With the help of James Gardner they produced a web-based version, free to all users.

The conversion figures the calculator uses are set out on the References page, by Dr N J Masters and Catherine Tutt. The two of them prepared the FAQs, updated in October 2026.

What has she published?

Her co-authored letters on smoking recording and COPD include:

• Masters N, Tutt C, Eades J. Early diagnosis of COPD. Br J Gen Pract. 2006;56(533):969.
• Masters NJ, Tutt C. QRISK2 and the limitations of recording smoking in primary care. BMJ. 2012;345:e5453.
• Masters N, Tutt C, Yaseen N. Waterpipe tobacco smoking and cigarette equivalence. Br J Gen Pract. 2012;62(596):127.

The site also lists an article by Dr Masters and Ms Tutt, “Rethinking smoking recording in general practice”, in the GKT Gazette (vol 132:2, pages 42-45, Winter 2018). Links are on publications and awards.