Is asthma care the best it can be?

The National Review of Asthma Deaths (NRAD) report led by Dr Mark Levy on behalf of the Royal College of Physicians was published in May 2014 – and was the largest review of the records of patients who had died from asthma in the United Kingdom.¹ It had support from the British Thoracic Society, the British Lung Foundation and the Primary Care Respiratory Society, as well as a wide variety of experts and clinicians – doctors, nurses, pharmacists – from primary, secondary and tertiary care. The report involved those working in A&E paediatrics, adult medicine, as well as pathology and intensive care – and hence was a comprehensive review of factors that appeared to be associated with people who died from asthma. The review, by multidisciplinary groups of clinicians, was based on detailed analysis of the notes of 195 people who died from asthma.