Asthma sufferers visited the Emergency Department at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital more than 2,000 times last year.

It needn’t be so. According to asthma charity Open Airways, each of those visits signals an asthma management plan that has failed.

It’s a message that will be shared at a free lecture by Martyn Partridge — and hopefully taken on-board by the 9,000 residents affected by the disease.

The world renowned asthma expert spoke with Lifestyle in advance of his talk at the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute tomorrow at 6pm.

What is asthma?

Asthma varies from person to person in many different ways and this variation is probably largely determined by an interaction of inherited characteristics (what we are born with) and the environment we live in. The term “asthma” thus covers a condition which can merely mean one has a bit of a prolonged cough after a cold, or a condition which means for another person with the condition that they are frequently short of breath and may need frequent trips to hospital. Not surprisingly, therefore, the treatments vary according to the type and severity of your particular asthma.

What’s your background in asthma? How does one become one of the world’s foremost authorities?

Years ago, when I was first starting my journey in chest medicine, I was struck by how little treatment was available or properly used for those with asthma and [that] there was no information available about the condition for those who had it and no guidelines for doctors and nurses as to how to treat it. I therefore worked in a voluntary capacity for 20 to 30 years with Asthma UK (and before that with the National Asthma Campaign and the Asthma Society) preparing materials and conferences and campaigning for better services and then in 1990, working with The British Thoracic Society, we produced the first British Guidelines on Asthma Management.

Subsequently, I spent ten years working similarly with the Global Initiative for Asthma. My research interests were initially lab-based, looking at where in the airways asthma causes most problems and then looking at new treatments for lung cancer, but for the last 20 years my research has been mainly involved with evaluating how best we deliver care to those with lung disease, looking at methods of integrating care, electronic support services for those with lung disease and use of lay educators.

What do you hope people here take away from your talk?

I would like even more of those with asthma to feel enthused and empowered to look after their asthma optimally. This means them understanding their treatments, appreciating signs that suggest their asthma is out of control and realising that asthma treatments are safe and effective, whereas poorly controlled asthma is dangerous. All of this necessitates a good relationship between the person with asthma and their doctor or nurse where within a partnership there is shared decision making and good support as people self-manage their own condition. All should have a written personalised asthma action plan.

Are there any recent advances in asthma treatment?

What is absolutely clear, though, is that for most people with asthma who have more than very infrequent symptoms, they need to be on an anti-inflammatory medication which will usually be a very low and safe dose of inhaled steroid breathed directly into the airways. If that doesn’t completely abolish the symptoms, a regular long-acting airway opener medicine may also be taken, but because these should never be taken separately without an inhaled steroid they are best taken together combined into the same inhaler. Examples of these inhalers are Symbicort and Seretide. One advance is that good studies now suggest that, for those who need a combination inhaler, if they use [one] that contains the medicine eformoterol (as in Symbicort) they can use a low dose of the inhaler regularly every morning and night with extra doses of the same medication as needed to relieve breakthrough symptoms instead of having to use a separate reliever inhaler.

This new method of using the older medicines has been shown to be more effective at reducing attacks and reduces the number of times people need steroid tablets for an attack.

How do you determine which treatment is best?

Selecting the correct treatment for your type of asthma is a vital part of a good partnership between a person with asthma and their doctor and nurse and this should be a process of shared decision making with each person receiving a personalised written asthma action plan. Increasingly people will be offered additional tests, whether sputum tests or breath tests of exhaled nitric oxide, to help determine the type and dose of medicine that they need.

How does Bermuda rate as far as asthma awareness, treatment, incidence, etc?

Liz [Boden of Open Airways] will be able to provide local data better than I, but whilst the number of people with the condition does vary a bit from region to region, and the reason for this is not known, the problems of delivering high standard care are the same the world over. This involves shared decision making, support as the person with asthma confidently self-manages their own condition, and easy and convenient access to healthcare for review when needed.

What’s needed to change in order to reduce the number of emergency visits, incidence of the disease?

Every attendance is to some extent a failure of that person’s current management and attendance should be followed by expert review to assess control and treatment needed in future.

I understand you’ve been to Bermuda before. What’s your connection to the Island?

I enjoyed very much a visit to Bermuda for Open Airways in 2009 and that came about because Liz and I met first at an asthma education conference in the UK about 20 years ago!

• Dr Partridge is professor of Respiratory Medicine and Patient Centred Care, National Heart and Lung Institute at Imperial College London. Nurses will be on hand to give asthma education from 5pm at BUEI tomorrow. Spacers and microfibre cloths will be given to those who attend. Admission is free.