Are GINA guidelines used correctly to assess asthma severity? – a retrospective study

Introduction: The Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) is a medical organisation that releases evidence-based guidelines for asthma management that are globally used by caregivers. Aims and Objectives: To check how accurately clinicians labelled patients with Severe Asthma based on the GINA guidelines. Methods: A retrospective analysis of all patients given a diagnosis of Severe Asthma or Moderate Asthma at Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, from June 2015 to December 2019, using the GINA guidelines. Results: A detailed breakdown of all patients analysed in this study is presented in the flowchart below. The ‘future’ group refers to patients that did not fulfil our inclusion criteria. They will be checked in the future and distributed into the GINA classifications accordingly. Conclusion: We assume that a 65.3% inaccuracy must have been financially detrimental to the hospital. We also concluded that data being put into the electronic records system is largely inaccurate, and therefore cannot be depended on when conducting studies or analyses. As corrective measures, GINA guidelines will be revised with all clinicians, and a change to the electronic records system will be implemented.