Led by the 3TR consortium, a European multi-stakeholder working group has developed ‘Core Outcome Measures sets for paediatric and adult Severe Asthma’ (COMSA). Core outcome measures (COM) are a set of tools that should be used in all studies about a specific topic. You can learn more about COM in this short video. Until now, asthma researchers have not used a standard set of measures to understand whether or not biological therapies work. Biological therapies or ‘biologics’ are specialist treatments for some types of severe asthma. The international working group has filled this gap with the COMSA. This will enable better data creation and assessment of biologics in childhood and adult asthma clinical trials. The COMSA will serve as a basis for future clinical trials and allow researchers to compare results between studies more easily.
They were formed under the leadership of Ekaterina Khaleva, Graham Roberts, Ratko Djukanovic and Anna Rattu from the University of Southampton, and developed by representatives from across Europe and North America.
European Lung Foundation (ELF) and European Federation of Allergy and Airways Diseases Patients’ Associations (EFA) supported the study to understand the perspectives of people living with severe asthma. With this strong backing, the following COM were selected by the 3TR researchers, patients, clinicians, pharmaceutical representatives, and health authorities.
3TR’s asthma experts expect that the results of this patient-centred collaboration will:
Read the research paper for more information:
Development of Core Outcome Measures sets for paediatric and adult Severe Asthma (COMSA).
“I found the experience to be incredibly insightful and felt that I was contributing to a meaningful activity. The patient voice is key in my mind to ensuring a good outcome for all parties. There is nothing more demoralising than feeling you are ignored as the patient. Contributing in this process was rewarding, enjoyable and made me feel I could help other patients with severe asthma have a better experience than I have had as a patient. Sometimes how asthma can impact on day-to-day life is more important to the patient than say a medical aspect. In this way COMSA gets the widest perspective and encourages patient input which is vital.”
Helen Parks, 3TR Respiratory Patient Working Group representative and ELF Council member
Learn more about the 3TR project
Find out how people with severe asthma view biological therapies
Funding: The 3TR project is funded by the Innovative Medicines Initiative 2 Joint Undertaking (JU) under grant agreement number: 831434. The JU receives support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA). The funder had no role in the design, conduct or write up of the narrative review or decision to publish. Further details about the 3TR project and IMI funding programme are available on their websites: www.3tr-imi.eu and www.imi.europa.eu.
Disclaimer: Content of this news article reflects only the author’s view and the JU is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.
