The COVID-19 pandemic has meant that the PCRS Respiratory Conference later this year will be held online. The conference will be delivered to delegates in their own homes or workplaces using some clever virtual events software. The programme is looking incredibly well organised and will be an exciting mix of high calibre speakers with Q&A and group breakout sessions still an important part of the conference.  Research at the conference this year will comprise a session to highlight the prize winners, a research round-up and an interactive researcher session. For more information read here.

Earlier this April, The Lancet Voice podcast invited Hilary Pinnock from Asthma UK Centre for Applied Research to join a special episode discussing Asthma and Covid-19. During the podcast, Hilary gave her view of the available evidence and advice for asthma patients and the clinicians who are caring for them during the COVID-19 outbreak.

This in-depth interview study shows the decision to present to the ED is made in serious crisis informed by previous experience. A primary care review of the reason for presentation and current management may improve care and reduce the need for future presentation. Read here for the main reasons people with breathlessness due to underlying conditions present to the ED.

In this paper Tracy Jackson and her team discuss the importance of patient and public involvement in research, barriers researchers face and the model used by the Asthma UK Centre for Applied Research to ensure people affected by asthma are kept at the very centre of their work.

For older adults, asthma can be underdiagnosed, undertreated and poorly self-managed. A new project at the AUKCAR, aims to tackle these issues. This new project will explore the perceptions of older adults in the UK with asthma on how they manage their asthma, how this impacts their life and if their asthma has changed over the years.

Asthma affects more than 300 million people in the world and more than five million people in the UK. It is more common in boys than in girls in childhood, but after puberty, can be more frequent and severe in women than in men. These sex differences have puzzled scientists for decades, but it is generally believed that female sex hormones may play a role.  This study sought to investigate whether hormonal contraceptive use, its subtypes, and duration of use were associated with new-onset asthma in reproductive-age women.

A social network tool, GENIE (Generating Engagement in Network Involvement) was implemented in a COPD community care context. The study aimed to assess the feasibility of the GENIE intervention to promote diet quality and other health behaviours in COPD. The outcomes of the process evaluation indicate that the intervention was acceptable to the participants and clinicians. Moreover, the GENIE intervention also showed promise in protecting prudent dietary habits in people with COPD.

Pulmonary Rehabilitation, a comprehensive program of exercise, education, and psycho-social intervention designed for COPD patients to manage their health beyond the duration of the program. PR is known to reduce COPD-related emergency hospitalizations, unscheduled doctor visits, and lessens patient’s dependence on healthcare resources. Yet, it is underutilized and under-resourced, most likely as a consequence of the perceived impracticalities for both patient and healthcare providers. In this millennium, as the health care system shifts from volume to value-based care, it is practical for health systems to offer PR services in primary care and adopt telemedicine to bridge the gaps between patient, healthcare interventions, and providers. Read the full article.

Supported self-management for asthma remains poorly implemented. We set out to identify ways to improve the implementation of asthma self-management support in primary care by understanding how individual self-management strategies develop. Patients learnt how to self-manage over time intuitively; some regular actions became habitual whereas dealing with the unexpected required more reflective cognitive skills. Patients may also be more receptive at diagnosis and following an asthma attack so clinicians should consider adapting their routines and offering support accordingly.

Making a diagnosis of asthma can be challenging. Guidelines recommend identification of patients at high probability of asthma, but this is not defined numerically. Using modified nominal group technique a consensus group of ten primary care clinicians felt that 75% was the threshold at which they would feel confident to establish the diagnosis of asthma, though a review of treatment response was considered essential. Contextual factors, including availability and timing of tests and the ease with which patients could be reviewed, influenced participants’ decision making.