Optimising Clinical Care

About

The Optimising Clinical Care theme is focused on improving care for people with breathing conditions like asthma, COPD, and other respiratory illnesses.

Our goal is simple: help people get the right care, earlier and more personally tailored to their needs. By doing this, we aim to reduce emergency visits to GPs and hospitals, ease pressure on the NHS (especially during the winter), and make health care more equal for everyone, especially those who might not get the support they need.

Theme 3 are working in three main areas, each with its own focus but all connected by one big goal: better care, based on solid research, made available to everyone.

1. Making Diagnosis Easier and Faster

We’re working on ways to help people get diagnosed with conditions like asthma or COPD more quickly and in places closer to home.

This includes:

• Understanding why some people get diagnosed late

• Exploring new affordable tests already approved for use

• Designing more joined up, personalised care to speed up the diagnostic process

We want to make sure that when someone has symptoms, they don’t get stuck waiting—they get answers and support fast.

2. Personalised Care for Long-Term Respiratory Conditions

Not everyone with respiratory conditions (e.g. asthma or COPD) is the same. That’s why we’re supporting research that helps us tailor care to what a person actually needs. This includesresearch on:

• Providing personalised treatment recommendations for asthma by identifying key features of a person’s condition—called treatable traits—that help guide the most suitable care for them

• Exploring the impact of co-existing health conditions (e.g. allergies, diabetes, depression) on respiratory outcomes

• Using data-driven approaches including Artificial Intelligence (AI) to provide personalised treatment choices

One example is a research programme called DEFINE, which is investigating if using FeNO (a specific breath test) can help personalise management of people with asthma in primary care. Providing evidence for this approach will help us to roll out solutions in the NHS as quickly as possible.

3. Better Care for Respiratory Illness

We’re also focusing on people who become unwell with respiratory illness, especially during winter when services are stretched. We will do this by:

• Identifying those most at risk of serious illness or hospital admission

• Supporting new studies to test early treatment approaches

• Bringing people from all sectors of society (researchers, people with lived experience, healthcare professionals, charities, industry) together to plan the most useful future studies

The goal here is simple: spot people at risk of serious illness sooner and act faster, so fewer people need emergency care.

Supporting People and Making a Real Difference

Across all areas, Theme 3 are:

• Working closely with patients, families, and healthcare professionals

• Supporting training of new and upcoming researchers

• Making sure our findings improve clinical practice by informing policies and guidelines

What Will We Achieve?

In the next few years, we expect to:

• Complete key studies and reviews

• Provide evidence for personalised care pathways ready to be implemented at scale

• Help shape NHS services and improve lives

Through strong partnerships and a focus on real-world impact, Optimising Clinical Care is about making respiratory healthcare faster, fairer, and more effective - for everyone.

Meet the Researchers

Kay Wang

Theme Lead

University of Southampton

Contact Kay

Salman Siddiqui

Theme Lead

Imperial College London

Contact Salman

Supported by...

Luke Daines

Associate Lead

Noelle Morgan

PPI Member

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