Typically, a healthcare professional (e.g. doctor) will have attributed the breathlessness to a medical condition called asthma. People might be given asthma drugs (treatments) to help improve their symptoms. However, for some people, these treatments do not make their symptoms of breathlessness any better. Some people also have breathlessness that is worse than expected given their clinical markers of asthma (e.g. blood results). This suggests there may be other factors contributing to their breathlessness.

 

One reason why people might have breathlessness that does not improve with asthma treatment is because the breathlessness is not entirely caused by asthma. Causes of breathlessness other than asthma may include breathing pattern changes, increased alarm symptoms associated with breath awareness, deconditioning, or other health conditions.

 

We are developing a learning health system to collect data to measure success of the Sheffield adult severe asthma service in helping people to master their breathlessness. A learning health system is like a smart hospital or healthcare system that learns and improves over time. It collects information from patients (like test results, treatments, and outcomes), learns what works best, and then uses that knowledge to help other patients. A learning health system:

 

•         observes what happens when patients are treated (data in, knowledge out). Every patient’s experience teaches the system something new.

•         learns from that data and adapts quickly - what treatments help most, etc.

•         improves how healthcare workers (e.g. doctors) care for future patients, using those lessons.

 

We will use patient medical records to look at things like asthma treatments prescribed and details of symptoms of breathlessness. As part of standard clinical care, healthcare workers (e.g. doctors) or members of the study team may perform a number of different tests to help understand people’s breathlessness - the results of these will also be collected.

 

We will also ask people to complete questionnaires about their asthma/breathlessness, and physical and mental health, at different time points throughout the study. We want to develop and ultimately test an approach, using the learning health system, that helps people to master their breathlessness, whatever its cause.

 

Lastly, people with asthma or persistent (chronic) breathlessness within the asthma service will be given the option to contribute their health data to future research studies. This could result in being offered new treatments or interventions. The data may be used as part of normal care and lead to changes in how the asthma team supports people living with breathlessness.

 

The study is running at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals and opened to recruitment in August 2025.

 

To find out more, please click on the links to read the Summary Participant Information Sheet; Participant Information Sheet, and Consent Form, or contact the study team on asthmabreathmasterylhs@nhs.net.