Assessing the impact of a Complex Asthma model of care to service all eligible Queensland children

A significant driver of the huge healthcare burden of asthma is children with difficult-to-treat or severe asthma (5-10% of childhood asthma, termed collectively as “Complex Asthma”). A recent survey of Australian and New Zealand paediatric tertiary services has highlighted the lack of a standardised approach to services and issues adequately identifying these children affected to ensure access to recommended models of care. At Queensland Children’s hospital (QCH) we have established a unique multidisciplinary team (MDT) service, involving eight different medical and allied health teams: Respiratory, Allergy & Immunology, Psychology, Psychiatry, Adolescent Medicine, Speech Pathology, Physiotherapy and Social work. It was awarded a QCH Excellence award in August 2026. The research program will focus on evaluating the available evidence, developing effective screening questionnaires for co-morbidities, and evaluating the overall effectiveness of this MDT approach. A novel ECHO platform at QCH, the first of its kind internationally targeting problematic asthma, educates and empowers non-tertiary community-based services to better identify and contribute to ongoing management, the impact of which will be formally assessed. This work coincides with the establishment of a national Australian and New Zealand Paediatric Severe Asthma Registry (led by QCH staff) which will enable benchmarking of outcomes to data collected at other tertiary centres. 

If you are interested, please contact Dr Tamara Blake for further information.