BTS Winter Meeting 2021: Using primary care data to find asthma patients at high risk for exacerbation

Pre-emptively identifying patients with asthma most at risk for exacerbation and intervening to improve their asthma control has the potential to save lives. A presentation (https://thorax.bmj.com/content/76/Suppl_2/A5.full ) from Dr Ananth from West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust at this weeks BTS Winter Meeting graphically highlighted several patient characteristics that point towards a high exacerbation risk . These include more than one exacerbation managed in primary care in the last 12 months, use of high-dose ICS, high use of SABA inhalers and high BMI. Searching practice databases for patients with combinations of these characteristics and inviting them for urgent review could avoid the next potentially life-threatening exacerbation and get patients back on a pathway of stable control. Dr Ananth also highlighted the need for a holistic, patient-centred approach and suggested that, for example, patients with obesity-related non-eosinophilic asthma, strategies such as weight management, reflux control and macrolide therapy may be more beneficial that increasing ICS dose.
Visit our Asthma Right Care page (https://www.pcrs-uk.org/resource/arc) to access a range of resources to help you identify, review and support your patients with asthma most at risk for exacerbation