Congratulations to the team from QUB and UoE on their recent funding success, as part of the HDR UK Inflammation and Immunity Driver Program.
“Our team of clinicians, statisticians and epidemiologists from Queen’s University and the University of Edinburgh have received HDR UK funding to develop prognostic models to help inform treatment decisions for individuals with severe asthma. First line rescue treatment for a severe asthma attack is systemic corticosteroids, which carry a risk of toxicities. Biologic therapies are effective in reducing asthma attacks and have a substantially better safety profile but are more expensive. Currently, Payer Access in the UK advise that individuals with severe asthma will only become eligible for biological therapy after multiple attacks. Identifying individuals at risk of multiple asthma attacks could potentially allow treatment decisions to be brought forward and avoid toxicities due to corticosteroid exposure. Our work aims to develop and validate prognostic models to estimate risk and prospectively identify individuals who will have multiple asthma attacks. This may allow a better understanding of the consequences of delayed intervention with effective therapies to reduce asthma attacks and allow Healthcare Payers and Providers to make more informed treatment decisions for individuals living with severe asthma.” – Andrew Kunzmann, QUB