Milestone MS16 Achieved – Good practices for collaboration in primary and secondary CRD care

Let’s celebrate together: the JARED project has just reached Milestone MS16, a significant step in its mission to combat chronic respiratory diseases across Europe!

We are strengthening respiratory health — one step at a time.

JARED’s Coordination Team is pleased to announce the successful completion of Milestone MS16, a comprehensive collection of good practices on collaboration between primary and secondary care in chronic respiratory disease (CRD) management, which marks a key achievement within Work Package 6 of the Joint Action.

This milestone is based on a large-scale survey conducted among healthcare professionals working in public healthcare settings and actively involved in CRD care across 14 European countries. A total of 739 responses were collected, with 293 fully completed questionnaires from 10 countries included in the final comparative analysis (Portugal, Poland, Spain, Hungary, Romania, Lithuania, Italy, Finland, Latvia, and Croatia).

Key findings:

• Significant variation in task division — The roles of primary health care (PHC) and secondary health care (SHC) in diagnosis, treatment initiation, treatment modification, monitoring, and patient education differ substantially across countries.
• Limited formal regulation — While many respondents reported the existence of formal frameworks defining responsibilities, clarity and implementation vary widely.
• Systemic barriers persist — Long waiting times for specialist consultations and an insufficient number of specialists were identified as the most common barriers to optimal care.
• Spirometry access varies — Availability, referral requirements, waiting times, and authorization to issue referrals differ markedly between countries.
• Digital tools remain underused — Over one-third of respondents reported no regular use of digital tools in CRD care, and public provision of digital solutions is uneven across Member States.
• Strong support for a greater PHC role — Among respondents who considered the current division of responsibilities suboptimal, the majority favoured strengthening the role of PHC in CRD management.

These insights provide a robust evidence base to support the development of recommendations on the optimal division of tasks between primary and secondary care in CRD management. By identifying effective models, common barriers, and country-level differences, MS16 contributes directly to the development of practical, context-sensitive guidance and best practice frameworks at European level.

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