Take a deep breath

To accompany last year's outcomes strategy for COPD and asthma, DH has produced a companion document that sets out best practice guidance for commissioners, particulraly in the transition period, ahead of the CCGs and the NHS Commissioning Board taking up the reins.  As Pulse points out, the guidance includes a case-finding approach to identifying undiagnosed patients.  A Swedish study of the use of a mini-spirometer in improving diagnosis of COPD finds it a highly effective device.  The companion document also reveals that DH is trialling the use of microspirometry in case finding in Yorkshire and Humber: the project is due to report in late 2012.

A breath of fresh air

The American Journal of Preventive Medicine provides an umbrella review of public health interventions for asthma over the past twenty years, with self-management education being the most consistently effective strategy. Asthma UK reports on a project in Yorkshire and Humber that involved training for education professionals. A study in the BMJ looks at the cost effectiveness of mobile phone monitoring for asthma control as compared with the usual paper based approach. This UK primary care based trial, which involved adolescents and adults with poorly controlled asthma, found that using phones didn't work any better than the old school method in enabling asthma control and that it was more expensive.