Asthma: diagnosis, monitoring and chronic asthma management

Putting this guideline into practice

NICE is recommending objective testing with spirometry and FeNO for most people with suspected asthma. This is a significant enhancement to current practice, which will take the NHS some time to implement, with additional infrastructure and training needed in primary care. New models of care, being developed locally, could offer the opportunity to implement these recommendations. This may involve establishing diagnostic hubs to make testing efficient and affordable. They will be able to draw on the positive experience of NICE's primary care pilot sites, which trialled the use of FeNO.

The investment and training required to implement the new guidance will take time. In the meantime, primary care services should implement what they can of the new guidelines, using currently available approaches to diagnosis until the infrastructure for objective testing is in place.

NICE has produced tools and resources to help you put this guideline into practice.