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In November 2024 NICE, in collaboration the British Thoracic Society (BTS) and the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN), released guidance NG245. It stated that the results of FeNO testing should be used, where possible, to confirm eosinophilic airway inflammation to support an asthma diagnosis in people aged 17 years and older particularly in those patients with diagnostic uncertainty and/ or a diagnosis of mild asthma.

In this podcast Fiona Mosgrove (PCRS Education lead) and Tom Fardon (Consultant Physician) discuss asthma biologics and how they can support effective severe asthma care. It compliments and covers PCRS's asthma desktop helper which aims to support primary healthcare professionals with their knowledge of biologics and how to identify patients who would benefit from them. During this recording Fiona and Tom explore:

In November 2024 the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), in collaboration with the British Thoracic Society (BTS) and Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN), launched their updated guideline: Asthma: diagnosis, monitoring and chronic asthma management [NG245]. This guideline has the potential to deliver high quality, standardised and cost effective care across the asthma care pathway, as well as tackle health inequality and the environmental impact respiratory conditions have in the UK.

Are you struggling to persuade your Integrated Care Board (ICB) to fund FeNO testing? With the new BTS/NICE/SIGN asthma guideline recommending FeNO for asthma diagnostic testing, this can create quite a challenging for primary care providers. There can also be uncertainty around when to use it and when not to and many will not be alone in this uncertainty.  

Childhood asthma is the most common chronic disease in childhood, with a prevalence of 10.2% in 2018. However, there is evidence of over-and under diagnosis in about 30% in mixed populations of adults and children and young people (CYP). This is particularly problematic in pre-school children where there is difficultly carrying out objective testing. 

In this podcast Executive Chair, Dr Katherine Hickman and Beverley Bostock (Nurse Practitioner and PCRS Executive Committee Member) explore accountability and responsibility.During this recording Katherine and Bev will explore where the responsibility lies for maintaining optimal health, what environment has to do with resilience, and how to draw a line between what you do as a clinician and what people living with respiratory conditions need to take responsibility for.

As we move from Winter into the beauty of Spring, as the trees start to produce their pollen, we begin to see an increase in patients with symptoms of Allergic Rhinitis.To help us understand this inflammatory disorder, we had Dr Glenis Scadding join us for our March 2025 In Conversation.

In this episode of the PCRS Podcast our Executive Chair, Dr Katherine Hickman, is joined by Dr Llinos Jones, Consultant Respiratory Physician with a specialist interest in asthma.Llinos is passionate about tackling health Inequalities and has created a number of fantastic multilingual resources in order to support asthma patients. During this conversation Llinos and Katherine discuss how we can improve our patients' care and understanding by overcoming cultural and language barriers.

Antibiotics are crucial for managing infectious diseases and preventing complications like pneumonia or sepsis. However, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) poses a growing global health threat, contributing to over 3 million deaths annually. While resistance can occur naturally, the misuse and overuse of antibiotics significantly accelerate this process, rendering treatments less effective or ineffective.