Australia’s leading asthma experts have called for a rethink of current asthma management practices in a new discussion paper released by the National Asthma Council Australia.
The paper ‘Current practice and new approaches in asthma: perspectives of asthma practitioners and patients’ is a collective response from top asthma health professionals, researchers and patients on how the objectives of the 2018 National Asthma Strategy can be achieved.
They say that the next frontier for asthma care will be the use of more sophisticated technology and the emerging precision medicine approach to asthma management. For now, there are potential improvements in current strategies, including exploring changes to medication scheduling to improve access and
affordability, and rethinking the key self-management tool of asthma action plans.
The paper closely aligns with the 2018 Strategy and highlights the following needs:
- More effective self-management practices that consider the patient’s personal disease experience and their social and environmental context.
- Further practical training and support for health professionals including communication skills and asthma literacy, the psychological aspects of asthma, and innovative approaches to patient-centred behaviour change.
- Closing care gaps in asthma diagnosis, medication use and adherence, and current inequities in asthma outcomes, particularly for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
- Raising the profile of asthma in the community through education programs and awareness campaigns.
- Translating the large amount of asthma research into practical knowledge.
Download the discussion paper, ‘Current practice and new approaches in asthma: perspectives of asthma practitioners and patients’.