New RESA e-tool Enables Personalised Prediction of Severe Asthma Attacks

Researchers from the National University of Singapore and University of British Columbia have created a free online tool called the Risk of Exacerbation in Severe Asthma (RESA) e-tool to help clinicians estimate a person’s likelihood of having a serious asthma flare-up over the next 12 months.

The work was recently published in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice, entitled “Development and Validation of the Risk of Exacerbation in Severe Asthma (RESA) Model”. To develop the tool, the researchers analysed health data from nearly 10,000 adults with severe asthma from more than 30 countries, using two of the world’s largest severe asthma cohorts: the International Severe Asthma Registry (ISAR) and the NOVELTY study. ISAR is a global, adult severe asthma registry established in 2017 by international severe asthma experts in collaboration with Optimum Patient Care Global (OPCG) and AstraZeneca.

The tool uses 11 pieces of information that are commonly collected during routine care, such as a patient’s age, number of recent asthma attacks, symptom control, lung function, and blood test results. By combining these details, RESA provides a more accurate prediction than relying on just one factor, such as number of flare-ups alone. Notably, RESA incorporates local background rates of asthma flare ups, allowing it to be used across multiple clinical settings.

The research team hopes that the tool can help clinicians and patients make more informed treatment decisions to better manage their asthma. The lead author of the study Dr. Wenjia Chen, Assistant Professor at Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health under the National University of Singapore, comments “RESA helps clinicians move beyond one-size-fits-all or single-factor decisions, such as relying only on past asthma flare-up history, toward more personalised and efficient risk-informed treatment decisions. For instance, two patients with the same asthma flare-up history may have markedly different future risks depending on other patient factors and local care environments”.

In testing, RESA demonstrated success in predicting frequent asthma flare-ups (≥2 within 12 months) and consistently provided greater clinical benefit than strategies based on limited or single patient factors.

Looking ahead, the research team is collaborating with ISAR to assess the real-world effectiveness of integrating RESA into specialist clinics, while additionally working with clinicians in Singapore to incorporate RESA into asthma virtual care programmes for better clinical decision support. Dr Wenjia Chen concludes “By giving a clearer picture of which patients are most at risk, RESA has the potential to transform severe asthma care- helping patients receive the right treatment sooner, preventing dangerous asthma attacks before they happen, and reducing emergency visits and hospital stays. If successful, this approach could lead to smarter, more personalised care and better outcomes for people with severe asthma globally”.

To learn more about the study, please read the full publication in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice as well as the accompanying slide deck.

Acknowledgement

This research is supported by the Singapore Ministry of Health’s National Medical Research Council under its Open Fund - Young Individual Research Grant (MOH-001337-00), Ministry of Education under its Academic Research Fund Tier 1 (22-4820-A0001-0), the International Severe Asthma Registry (ISAR) Expert Panel and the Observational and Pragmatic Research Institute (OPRI). ISAR is operated by Optimum Patient Care Global (OPCG) and co-funded by OPCG and AstraZeneca Ltd.  We thank all investigators, collaborators, and patients who contributed to this research.

About OPRI

The Observational and Pragmatic Research Institute (OPRI) is an internationally recognized independent research organization dedicated to providing real-world evidence that supports best practices in chronic disease management in primary care. Learn more at https://www.opri.org.uk/. For media inquiries and additional information, please contact https://www.opri.org.uk/contact.

About ISAR

The International Severe Asthma Registry (ISAR) is the first global adult severe asthma registry, providing a rich, standardized dataset to advance research, clinical practice, and policy in severe asthma care. It fosters international collaboration to improve outcomes for patients worldwide. ISAR is operated by Optimum Patient Care Global Ltd. (OPCG) and co-funded by OPCG and AstraZeneca. Learn more at https://www.isar.opcglobal.org.