Current Status

The British Thoracic Society (BTS), Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) have been working together to produce future UK-wide guidance for the diagnosis and management of chronic asthma in adults, young people and children.

This guideline will be available for consultation in May/June 2024 and the final document published in October 2024. The guideline will:

1. support health professionals in making accurate diagnoses and providing effective treatments to control the condition and prevent acute asthma attacks
2. promote good practice and include recommendations in areas where differences in guidance had previously existed between the organisations.

The scope of this guideline is available here.

The new ‘asthma pathway’, which will include the new guidelines as part of a broader set of guidance and materials produced by BTS, SIGN and NICE, on diagnosing and managing asthma throughout an individual’s lifetime, will also be launched in October 2024.

BTS and SIGN have been working together to agree on the actions to be taken in relation to revalidating/updating the areas covered in the BTS/SIGN British guideline on the management of asthma (SIGN 158) that fall outside the scope of the collaborative guideline.

The following approach is planned and details can be found in the scoping summary.

• Revalidate and reformat ‘Management of acute asthma’ (existing section 9) as a standalone guideline, with further review in 3 years’ time.
• Review and refresh ‘Non-pharmacological management’ (section 6) and ‘Occupational asthma’ (section 13) and produce as standalone guidelines, with further review in 3 years’ time. These sections would be updated to reflect new evidence in environmental factors, air purification and breathing.
• Produce a new standalone guideline on uncontrolled asthma that includes guidance on pharmacological management (specifically biologics), assessment, phenotyping, high-risk patients, biomarkers and monitoring (replacing the existing sections 7 and 10).
• Review and update the accompanying patient booklet.

Who it’s for

This guideline is for:

• healthcare professionals in primary, secondary and tertiary care
• healthcare professionals in community care (including pharmacists)
• local authorities
• commissioners and providers of asthma clinics
• people using services and their families and carers, and the public.

It may also be relevant for:

• private sector or voluntary organisations commissioned to provide services for the NHS or local authorities
• people working in related services.

Timeline

It is intended that the revalidated/refreshed sections of the guidance will be available in late 2024, and a timetable for the new guideline will be made available in due course.

How this guideline is being developed

This guideline is being developed jointly by NICE, SIGN and BTS in accordance with NICE methods and processes.