Providing a summary of evidence about asthma care is not sufficient to change outcomes; there is now a strong evidence base about effective (and ineffective) methods for implementing clinical guidelines and achieving behaviour change by health professionals and patients .
Evidence-based recommendations need to be presented in a way that is both accessible and relevant to clinicians, and integrated into strategies that are feasible for health professionals to use in their busy clinical practice.
The GINA report, therefore,now focuses not only on the existing strong evidence base about what treatment should be recommended, but also on clarity of language and on inclusion of clinical tools (evidence-based where possible) for how this can be done in clinical practice.
Recommendations are now presented in a user-friendly way, with clear language and extensive use of summary tables, clinical tools and flow-charts.
The electronic report includes hyperlinked cross-references for figures, tables and citations.
The main report includes the rationale and evidence levels for key recommendations, with more detailed supporting material and information about epidemiology, pathogenesis and mechanisms moved to an online appendix. The result is a report that is less like a textbook, and more like a practical manual, that can be adapted to local social, ethnic, health system and regulatory conditions for national guidelines.
Additional resources including pocket guides and slide kits are also available on the GINA website (www.ginasthma.org)