Foreword

 

Asthma is estimated to affect over two million Australians, adults and children. It imposes a significant burden on health care services, the community and most importantly individuals with asthma and their families.

Asthma was designated a state priority in New South Wales in 1995. An Expert Panel on Asthma was convened to advise the NSW Department of Health on strategies to: 

• reduce the prevalence of asthma in NSW;
• improve the health of people with asthma; and 
• optimise the clinical management of asthma.

In recent years there have been many advances in the treatment of asthma. As the volume of scientific literature expands exponentially, it is becoming impossible to keep up to date and well informed. Increasingly, health professionals are using clinical practice guidelines from trusted sources to assist decision-making. The National Asthma Campaign's Asthma Management Handbook is the key document referenced by general practitioners in NSW for information on asthma. Like the majority of guidelines, the Handbook, containing the Australian Six Step Asthma Management Plan, is based on a consensus of expert opinion. However, changes in clinical practice are more likely to occur when health professionals are convinced of the effectiveness of the intervention and the guidance is 'evidence based'.

Therefore a collaborative project between NSW Health, the National Asthma Campaign, the Department of Respiratory Medicine at John Hunter Hospital and the Cochrane Collaboration was undertaken. The aim is to ensure that health professionals have access to an up-to-date, authoritative source of advice on the clinical management of asthma.

The expert team led by Dr Peter Gibson spent two years rigorously analysing the evidence to support the recommendations contained in the Australian Six Step Asthma Management Plan. The key findings of this review are summarised in this document and full details are available in electronic format on both the National Asthma Campaign's and NSW Health’s websites. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the members of the NSW Expert Panel on Asthma who have given their time so generously to contribute to this project.

In August 1999 asthma was endorsed by the Australian Health Minister's Conference as the sixth National Health Priority Area and I hope that this will ensure an ongoing commitment to providing health care for people with asthma that is based on the best available evidence for effectiveness.

I look forward to the incorporation of the review's findings into the next edition of the Asthma Management Handbook.

I have much pleasure in commending to you the Summary Report on the 1999 Evidence-based Review of the Australian Six Step Asthma Management Plan.

Craig Knowles, MP
Minister for Health