The REAL-HEALTH Respiratory initiative helps GP practices improve their management of common respiratory conditions, with an initial focus on asthma. 

Identifying high-risk asthma patients

Using guidelines, educational materials, and an in-practice software tool, the programme aims to reduce asthma-related hospital admissions by improving management of the condition in primary care. The programme:

• Provides practices with tools that help them identify patients with high-risk asthma, based on prescribing records;
• Optimises asthma management and prescribing, with regular structured asthma reviews for those at highest risk of hospital admission. 

Guidelines and educational resources

• Summary guidelines [PDF 481KB] ‘Identifying patients with asthma at high risk of hospital admission’
• GP info sheet [PDF 378KB] ‘Identifying patients with asthma at high risk of hospital admission’
• Patient info sheet [PDF 275KB] ‘How do I look after my asthma?’
• AccuRx instruction guide [PDF 204KB] - How to set up AccuRx Patient SMS Templates in your practice 

In-practice tool: Asthma Prescribing Tool (APT)

• Tool: Asthma Prescribing Tool excel file v1.2 [XLS 316KB]
• Search: REAL Health Respiratory v1.2.xml [219KB]
• Instructions: Asthma Prescribing Tool instruction guide. [PDF 431KB]

About the programme and tools 

Five-minute explanatory video: ‘Reducing hospital admissions for Asthma. EMIS Web tools to support Primary Care Asthma Management’

Team

Anna De Simoni, Sally Hull, Chris Griffiths, Paul Pfeffer, Jim Cole, Hajar Hajmohammadi