Asthma Measurement Development - Asthma Outcomes Workshop

In order to develop asthma quality measurements, the comparison and validation of clinical research and recommendations require a shared language. An asthma outcomes workshop was held in order to establish standards and identity outcomes measures for asthma clinical research. The workshop was organized by a consortium of governmental and nongovernmental organizations, including the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, the National Center on Minority Health Disparities, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and the Merck Childhood Asthma Network.

The main objectives of the project were to:

• Establish standard definitions and data collection methodologies for validated outcome measures in asthma clinical research.
• Identify promising outcome measures for asthma clinical research and comment on their status and further validation needs.

Seven subcommittees met in advance of the workshop to prepare recommendations on outcomes for their respective domain. The subcommittees were:

• Asthma Symptoms
• Asthma Exacerbations
• Airway Physiology
• Asthma Biomarkers
• Asthma Quality of Life
• Asthma Composite Scores
• Asthma Health Care Utilization and Costs

Each subcommittee identified outcomes in its domain and classified them as core, supplemental, or emerging based on their clinical importance and on their level of validation and standardization. The workshop itself was held on March 15 and 16, 2010 in Bethesda, Maryland and was attended by more than 80 participants from the scientific and medical community and Federal agencies with major research programs in asthma.

Representatives from pharmaceutical industry and insurers attended as observers. The workshop resulted in consensus recommendations for core, supplemental, and emerging outcomes for each subcommittee. Following the workshop, each subcommittee revised their reports based on workshop discussions.