The Centre of Excellence in Treatable Traits is committed to developing and implementing patient-centred models of care. A model of care is the way in which health care is packaged and delivered.
People with airway diseases (asthma and COPD) can face a substantial burden. The disease burden experienced by people with these conditions impacts many aspects of life including physical, emotional, and economic areas. Airway diseases can also negatively impact social functioning and relationships.
The associated disease burden for people with COPD and severe asthma has remained largely unchanged for the past 10 years, and improvements in disease control have stalled over that period of time.
What is Treatable Traits?
Treatable Traits is a personalised management strategy for people with asthma and COPD. Core to the Treatable Traits approach is the recognition that not all people are the same, and that asthma and COPD are expressed differently from individual to individual. The Treatable Traits approach assesses this individuality and applies personalised treatments to address it.
The Treatable Traits approach looks beyond problems associated with the lungs and includes the management of other common chronic illnesses and behavioural or risk factors. This allows for the application of the most appropriate treatments to the most appropriate people. The Treatable Traits approach leads to improvements in quality of life and disease control for people with asthma and COPD.
Patient Experience Videos
Our Centre will develop a variety of videos that capture the experience of living with asthma and COPD. These videos will be made available online.
Useful Resources
Our Centre of Excellence in Treatable Traits will provide useful resources including infographics. This section of the website will continue to grow, so we recommend that you check back often.
Below are some links that you may find useful:
- The Severe Asthma Toolkit is a resource developed for clinicians looking after people with severe asthma. It covers a vast array of topics related to the diagnosis, assessment and management of severe asthma.
https://toolkit.severeasthma.org.au/ - The Centre of Excellence in Severe Asthma supports training, research, collaboration and translation of findings for the management of severe asthma.
https://www.severeasthma.org.au/ - The Health Talk website provides an account of the real-life experiences of people with severe asthma from all different parts of Australia. The website is a great resource for people with severe asthma and their families, as well as for students and health professionals, and to inform patient care and future policy improvements.
https://healthtalkaustralia.org/severe-asthma/overview/ - Asthma Australia is a for-purpose, consumer organisation with a history of improving the lives of people with asthma. Asthma Australia provides various resources including an information line, 1800 Asthma (1800 278 462).
https://asthma.org.au/ - Lung Foundation Australia is the only charity and leading peak body of its kind in Australia that funds life-changing research and delivers support services that give hope to people living with lung disease or lung cancer. They provide resources for people with chronic lung diseases and their carers, health professionals and researchers.
https://lungfoundation.com.au/