Dr. Howard Smith Oncall

  Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/ajjDXzpkfVs   At least one-quarter of asthmatics are mismanaging their disease overusing short-acting bronchodilators.  So say British pulmonologists following their case reviews of some 30,694 London residents from 5 to 80 years of age with diagnosed active asthma.   The data reveals that 26% of these patients were consistently prescribed more than six short-acting beta-agonist inhalers per year.  Furthermore, 25% of those patients using this inappropriate abundance of bronchodilators were underusing the recommended continuing therapy for asthma which is inhaled corticosteroids.  More inappropriate overprescribing was occurring for those patients with more severe asthma.   Apparently, these patterns of inappropriate asthma management are replicated in other countries, notably in Sweden and Germany.  The same may well be true for the United States.  To be clear, the recommended ongoing preventive therapy for asthma is the prescription of inhaled steroids with or without bronchodil