Abstract:
Asthma is responsible for considerable global morbidity and health-care costs. Substantial progress was made against key outcomes such as hospital admissions with asthma and mortality in the 1990s and early 2000s, but little improvement has been observed in the past 10 years, despite escalating treatment costs. New assessment techniques are not being adopted and new drug discovery has progressed more slowly than in other specialties.
In this Commission, we aim to provide our view of where we are and where we need to go as a community of clinicians and researchers who tackle the considerable public health problem of asthma. The Commission should not be seen as a comprehensive review but an article that reflects the collective view and opinions of the Commissioners. This Commission is also a call for action to all clinicians involved in the field. The aim of the Commission is to identify entrenched areas of asthma management and treatment in which progress has stalled and to challenge current principles, and the results have been integrated into seven sections.