Introduction to Asthma and its Diagnosis



Description
This session will describe the impact of asthma on patients and identify the key characteristics of asthma. Later, it will explore the issues surrounding the diagnosis of asthma and describe the objective tests that are commonly used to support diagnosis.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this session you will be able to:
- Describe the impact of asthma on morbidity and mortality
- Identify the key characteristics of asthma
- Explain why it can be difficult to diagnose asthma
- Describe the tests used to support the diagnosis of asthma
This is the first of five related sessions on the impact, diagnosis and management of asthma in adults.
In this first session, we will initially investigate the impact of asthma on morbidity and mortality and identify the key characteristics of asthma.
Later, we will consider the challenges associated with the diagnosis of asthma and explore some of the objective tests that are used to support such efforts.
Viv has 25 years’ experience of clinical practice in the NHS in both primary and secondary care and joined Education for Health in 2013 as the Clinical Lead for Asthma and Allergy.
She believes that excellence in education for healthcare professionals is the key to improving health outcomes for people with asthma and allergy. Identifying people with poor disease control and helping them to improve their disease management through shared decision making and action planning is essential if we are to improve quality of life for people with asthma and allergy and prevent avoidable deaths.
In addition to her educational role, Viv also works part time in primary care reviewing and managing patients with respiratory disease.
She has a number of additional professional interests including a role on the editorial board for a nursing journal, writing for publication and is a member of the Asthma UK Council for Health Professionals.
Viv is also on the committee for the National Paediatric Respiratory and Allergy Nurses Group, where she leads on primary care issues, and was a panellist on the National Review of Asthma Deaths.

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