Can we measure whether asthma guidelines lead to improved care?
Ronnie TanAnna MurphyChris BrightlingDominick E ShawPublished in: NPJ primary care respiratory medicine (2024)
The British Thoracic Society (BTS) and Scottish Intercollege Guidelines Network (SIGN), as well as National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), have previously produced separate asthma guidance differing in some key aspects in diagnosis and management leading to confusion, potentially hampering guideline dissemination and uptake. While there are inherent challenges, the upcoming release of new joint BTS/SIGN/NICE asthma guidance presents an opportunity to assess guideline adoption and its impact on clinical practice. The use of prescription data via databases such as OpenPrescribing can be used as a surrogate for guideline adoption and potentially linked to clinical outcomes such as hospital episode statistics (HES). The potential recommendation for anti-inflammatory reliever therapy (AIR) and maintenance and reliever therapy (MART) with inhaled corticosteroid/formoterol combination therapy in the next iteration of UK asthma guidance will require the accurate coding for the respective therapeutic approaches on prescribing platforms in order to assess their impact in real-life clinical practice. This could then direct targeted measures to improve wider guidance adoption leading to better clinical care in asthma based on up to date evidence.
Keyphrases
- clinical practice
- chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
- healthcare
- lung function
- allergic rhinitis
- quality improvement
- combination therapy
- palliative care
- electronic health record
- anti inflammatory
- primary care
- cystic fibrosis
- public health
- pain management
- machine learning
- mental health
- high resolution
- affordable care act
- big data
- deep learning
- spinal cord injury
- climate change
- smoking cessation
- social media
- data analysis
- cancer therapy
- replacement therapy