Scientific basis
The Asthma Optimiser was developed in a number of steps. The idea for the Asthma Optimiser originated in England from the serious asthma specialist Prof. David Jackson. He noticed that many people in his London environment came to him late, and that pharmacy data showed that a great many corticosteroid surgeries were prescribed. He wanted people to be referred to him sooner. Hence the idea of the ReferID+.
He discussed this idea at meetings of PRECISION, an international healthcare improvement program supported by AstraZeneca. This steering committee guided the entire process of developing the ReferID+.
Professor Janwillem Kocks was also in this international steering group, and saw the possibilities not only for faster referral, but for improving care in primary care. He proposed to adapt the ReferID+ for the Netherlands and call it the AsthmaOptimiser. Because it could do much more than ensure that referrals would be made.
David Jackson investigated the effect of ReferID+ in the OASIS study. A randomized study in England to evaluate the effectiveness of using the tool. These results were presented in December 2023 during the BTS congress:
EFFICACY OF THE REFERID+ DIGITAL TOOL IN UNCONTROLLED ASTHMA IN PRIMARY CARE (OASIS): A RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED TRIAL
https://doi.org/10.1136/thorax-2023-BTSabstracts.96
In the study of 202 patients, the use of the ReferID+ was shown to reduce the number of lung attacks after one year from (1.87[±1.47] to 0.79[±1.21], p<0.001) per year. In the control group without the ReferID+ this remained almost equal from 1.67[±1.46] to 1.46[±1.67], p=0.17).
The ACQ score also improved clinically and statistically significantly.
In addition, the CAPTURE study into the implementation of the AsthmaOptimiser by Prof. Janwillem Kocks took place in the Netherlands.
This research was presented during the Dutch Lung Days, among other events.
In this study, 220 people with asthma were included by practice nurses from 32 practices. This showed that 60% of the patients still had uncontrolled asthma, unfortunately. The advice given by the AsthmaOptimiser is shown in the figure below.
The scientific publications are currently being reviewed by journals and will follow soon