4. Goals of Asthma Therapy and Management

The complete EPR 4 working group report and GINA reports are widely available for review. In this reference guide we will only highlight key aspects of these guidelines.

EPR-4 Update report

GINA 2020 report

Since the writing of this reference guide, GINA 2021 has also been published with minimal changes. A summary of these changes can be found here.

EPR3 breaks down goals of therapy into 4 components:

• Assessing (diagnosing) and monitoring asthma severity and control
  
  
• Education for a partnership in care
  
  
• Environmental and comorbidity control
  
  
• Medication management
  
  
• • The EPR4 keeps these similar goals but provides updates on 6 priority topics that were not addressed in the EPR3. These were: fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO), indoor allergen mitigation, intermittent inhaled corticosteroids, long-acting muscarinic antagonists (LAMA), Immunotherapy in the treatment of allergic asthma, and bronchial thermoplasty.