About

We are a consortium of world-renowned clinicians, researchers and key respiratory
organisations who are collaborating to improve healthcare outcomes for people with chronic airway
diseases – meet our team here.

To catch up on what we have been up to lately, you can read our May 2023 Annual Report here

To revolutionise the management of chronic airway diseases by testing and implementing “Treatable Traits” approaches – A new paradigm for personalised medicine.

There is a substantial global health burden from chronic airway diseases, particularly severe asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The disease burden of COPD has remained largely unchanged for the past 10 years and improvements in asthma control have stalled over that period of time.

In response to this problem, there are calls for a new approach for chronic airway disease
management called Treatable Traits.

The Centre of Excellence in Treatable Traits will generate new knowledge to support the Treatable Traits approach and ensure translation into practice through our innovative research and education programmes.

We will achieve this by:

• Developing new knowledge by testing the impact of Treatable Traits on patient outcomes and identifying the related economic benefits
• Developing implementation tools and translating new models of care and technology into policy and practice
• Training the next generation of respiratory clinical researchers by offering world-class opportunities
• Developing and enhancing national and international collaborations for cutting edge research.

Treatable Traits is a personalised medicine strategy for chronic airway diseases. At the core of the Treatable Traits concept is the recognition that not all people with airway diseases are the same. Within individuals clinical, biological and functional presentation of diseases vary. This is often referred to as heterogeneity. Treatable Traits is an approach that characterises this individuality and allows for the implementation of targeted treatments to address it.

Treatable Traits involves a multidimensional assessment of ‘traits’ and the application of personalised medicine according to the identified traits.

Treatable traits are phenotypic or endotypic characteristics which can include comorbidities (such as anxiety, vocal cord dysfunction and reflux), risk factors (such as smoking and bone density) and self-management skills (such as adherence and inhaler technique). To be considered a trait each characteristic must be clinically relevant, identifiable and measurable using validated trait identification markers, and treatable. Treatable Traits are recognised within three domains: pulmonary traits, extrapulmonary traits and behavioural/risk-factors. 

Managing patients with severe asthma and COPD using the Treatable Traits approach improves health-related quality of life; validating this as a useful management paradigm for chronic airway disease.