In 2014, we were proud to launch the European Respiratory Society (ERS)/European Lung Foundation (ELF) campaign: Healthy Lungs for Life (HLfL; www.healthylungsforlife.org); a lung health campaign to educate all stakeholders about the importance of prevention and management of lung disease and how this can be achieved. Our inaugural theme, "Breathe Clean Air", was a timely and impactful topic to kick off with and resonated across the globe with politicians in the EU, journalists in a range of countries, scientists carrying out research with funding from HLfL, the people of Munich who had their lungs tested while the ERS International Congress took place, and those who attended events held by our collaborators across the globe, from India to the USA to New Zealand.
Chronic respiratory diseases (CRDs) are major non-communicable diseases (NCDs) that induce a significant burden. Asthma often occurs along the life cycle from early childhood, affecting 30 million children and adults under 45 years of age in Europe. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) has an estimated annual death rate of over 3 million people globally. The annual direct and indirect costs in the 28 European Union (EU) countries due to COPD or asthma are estimated at 48 billion euros and 34 billion euros respectively. Rhinitis occurs in over 100 million people in Europe, and indirect costs are enormous. Asthma is a common risk factor for COPD. CRDs impact ageing and should be prevented, recognised and managed across the life cycle to promote active and healthy ageing (AHA). There is an urgent need to act globally. European Innovation Partnerships (EIPs) aim to enhance EU competitiveness and tackle societal challenges through research and innovation. To tackle the potential of ageing in the EU, the European Commission, within its Innovation Union policy, launched the EIP on AHA (between the Directorate General for Health and Food Safety (DG Santé) and Directorate General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology (DG CONNECT)). The B3 Action Plan promotes integrated care models for chronic diseases, including the use of remote monitoring. The initiative AIRWAYS-ICPs (integrated care pathways for airway diseases) has been approved by the EIP on AHA as the model of chronic diseases of the B3 Action Plan. It is a Research Demonstration Project of the World Health Organization's Global Alliance against Chronic Respiratory Diseases (GARD). AIRWAYS-ICPs was initiated in 2013 by the WHO Collaborating Centre of Montpellier and the EIP on AHA Reference Site MACVIA-LR (Contre les MAladies Chroniques Pour un Vieillissement Actif en Languedoc-Roussillon, France) led by the Région Languedoc-Roussillon (France). ; Peer reviewed
U-BIOPRED is a European Union consortium of 20 academic institutions, 11 pharmaceutical companies and six patient organisations with the objective of improving the understanding of asthma disease mechanisms using a systems biology approach.This cross-sectional assessment of adults with severe asthma, mild/moderate asthma and healthy controls from 11 European countries consisted of analyses of patient-reported outcomes, lung function, blood and airway inflammatory measurements.Patients with severe asthma (nonsmokers, n=311; smokers/ex-smokers, n=110) had more symptoms and exacerbations compared to patients with mild/moderate disease (n=88) (2.5 exacerbations versus 0.4 in the preceding 12 months; p
