Asthma management in primary care: caring, sharing and working together

While historically chronic illnesses have been “stewarded” by different practitioners in different countries [1] with the increasing number of people with chronic illnesses and the ever rising costs of healthcare, the primary care setting is viewed as the long-term custodian of chronic illness management [2–4]. For people with asthma, quality management in primary care is a real, viable and accessible solution to asthma care. This is reflected in guidelines [2, 5, 6], in research trends (as we see pragmatic research sourcing participants in primary care) [7, 8] and it is evidenced in a multitude of primary healthcare initiatives established to support primary care physicians to optimally manage asthma in the community. Why aren't primary care physicians and pharmacists collaborating more to manage and monitor asthma medication issues?