Management of Asthma Patients by Community Pharmacists - A Focus on High-Risk Patients and Inhaled Medication Use

Abstract

The management of asthma in Australia is a significant concern. Despite the availability of explicit asthma management guidelines, the number of patients experiencing significant burden of disease from asthma still remains high. One approach to reducing this involves utilising community pharmacists to assist patients in their inhaler technique.

Whilst evidence exists that asthma management programs conducted by community pharmacists involving training on inhaler technique can assist in improving outcomes, there are a significant number of barriers impeding their implementation in daily practice.

One strategy to assist pharmacists to deliver this information is to identify which patients groups are at high risk of making inhaler technique errors associated with poor clinical outcomes. This knowledge may assist pharmacists to identify which groups of patients require more urgent or thorough assistance with the use of their inhalers, reducing the burden of disease.

The overall aim of this thesis is gain insights into high risk patient groups, being those which are most likely to benefit from the skills of community pharmacist.