EFA

On 23 and 24 of January this year, EFA attended the annual meeting of the U-BIOPRED project in Barcelona. EFA is a partner in this five-year project, which aims to improve our understanding of severe asthma, its phenotypes (different forms of the disease), its history and how it progresses. It also aims to explain why existing medicines are unable to meet patients' needs, and address issues such as patients' lack of responsiveness to treatment. Its goal is to improve research through the development of better models, the use of new technologies and a better characterisation of patients with severe asthma. EFA participates in 3 of the project's 10 'Work Packages': WP 2 (consensus generation), 9 (dissemination of information) and 10 (ethics), and members of the EFA board sit on the U-BIOPRED ethics and safety boards. During the meeting, discussions focused upon patient perspective, and how patient organisations can become more involved in the project and help to boost the recruitment of people with asthma for the U-BIOPRED trial.