GINA has chosen ‘Closing Gaps in Asthma Care’ as the theme for the 2022 World Asthma Day.
Current gaps in asthma care include:
- In equal access to diagnosis and treatment (medicine)
- Between care for different socioeconomic, ethnic and age groups
- Between wealthy and poorer communities and countries;
- In communication and care across the primary/secondary/tertiary care interface
- In communication and education provided for people with asthma, (quality of asthma care plans vs)
- In asthma knowledge and asthma awareness between health care providers
- In prioritization between asthma and other long term conditions
- Between prescribing inhalers and monitoring adherence and ability to use these devices;
- Exist for the general public’s (non-asthmatics) and health care professionals’ awareness and understanding that asthma is a chronic (not acute) disease.
- Between scientific evidence and actual delivery of care for people with asthma.
Addressing these gaps can be partially achieved through provision of the annually updated evidence based GINA strategy documents.
However, implementing recommendations based on scientific evidence is challenging across the globe. Not all local solutions are applicable globally and similarly global recommendations may not be applicable locally.
The challenge posed by this year’s theme is for international respiratory communities to work together with colleagues, patients and health care providers to identify and close the gaps in asthma care and to help implement and share innovative solutions locally and globally.