Using a knowledge translation framework to identify health care professionals’ perceived barriers and enablers for personalised severe asthma care

Treatable traits models of care

Treatable traits is a personalized approach to the management of respiratory disease. The approach involves a multidimensional assessment to understand the traits present in individual patients. Traits are phenotypic and endotypic characteristics that can be identified, are clinically relevant and can be successfully treated by therapy to improve clinical outcomes. Identification of traits is followed by individualized and targeted treatment to those traits. First proposed for the management of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) the approach is recommended in many other areas of respiratory and now immunology medicine. Models of care for treatable traits have been proposed in different diseases and health care setting. In asthma and COPD traits are identified in three domains including pulmonary, extrapulmonary and behavioural/lifestyle/risk-factors. In bronchiectasis and interstitial lung disease, a fourth domain of aetiological traits has been proposed. As the core of treatable traits is personalized and individualized medicine; there are several key aspects to treatable traits models of care that should be considered in the delivery of care. These include person centredness, consideration of patients' values, needs and preferences, health literacy and engagement. We review the models of care that have been proposed and provide guidance on the engagement of patients in this approach to care.

Treatable traits, combination inhaler therapy and the future of asthma management

The landscape of asthma has considerably changed in the last decade. Effective medications and inhaler devices have been developed and integrated into the asthma pharmacopoeia, but unfortunately, the proportion of uncontrolled patients remains unacceptably high. This is now recognized to be mainly due to the inappropriate use of medications or inhaler devices, heterogeneity of the disease or other factors contributing to the disease. Currently, inhaled corticosteroids (ICS), with or without long-acting beta agonists (LABA), are the cornerstone of asthma management, and recently international guidelines recognized the importance of combination inhaler therapy (ICS/LABA) even in mild asthma. In future, ultra-long-acting personalized medications and smart inhalers will complement combination inhaler therapy in order to effectively addresses issues such as adherence, inhaler technique and polypharmacy (both of drugs and devices). Asthma is now acknowledged as a multifaceted cluster of disorders and the treatment model has evolved from one-size-fits-all to precision medicine approaches such as treatable traits (TTs, defined as measurable and treatable clinically important factors) which encourages the quality use of medications and identification and management of all underlying behavioural and biological treatable risk factors. TT requires research and validation in a clinical context and the implementation strategies and efficacy in various settings (primary/secondary/tertiary care, low-middle income countries) and populations (mild/moderate/severe asthma) are currently evolving. Combination inhaler therapy and the TTs approach are complementary treatment approaches. This review examines the current status of personalized medicine and combination inhaler therapy, and describes futuristic views for these two strategies.

Treatable Traits in Airway Disease: From Theory to Practice

Chronic airway diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease are prevalent and complex conditions that often coexist in the same patient. To address this complexity in clinical practice, and to move forward toward personalized and precision medicine of airway diseases, a strategy based on the identification and treatment of so-called "treatable traits" (TTs) has been proposed. A TT is a recognizable phenotypic or endotypic characteristic that can be assessed and successfully targeted by therapy to improve a clinical outcome in a patient with airway disease. Importantly, TTs can coexist in the same patient, so they are not mutually exclusive. The TT strategy proposes to investigate in each individual patient with chronic airway disease the number and type of TTs present and to treat each of them according to guideline recommendations. This strategy is agnostic (ie, independent) to the traditional diagnostic labels (asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), so it can be applied to any patient with airway disease. Currently, there is firm evidence supporting the adequacy and validity of the TT strategy. Here, we review the current state of the art of this topic, first by presenting its theoretical background and then by discussing how to best implement it in clinical practice.