A NEW website designed to help the wider community better understand what it is like to live with severe asthma will be launched in Newcastle on Wednesday night.
Local researchers and their collaborators from across Australia will be in Newcastle on Wednesday for the Centre of Excellence in Severe Asthma's Annual Research Day.
The event, which shares and celebrates the Centre's major research developments and achievements, will wrap up with the launch of a patient experience website - Health Talk Australia - at a public symposium at Newcastle Museum.
"Severe asthma is a different disease to moderate-to-mild asthma, but the understanding of the community - of many health care practitioners even - is that asthma is a disease that can be managed," co-director of the Centre, Professor Vanessa McDonald, said.
"But those messages can't be applied to people with severe asthma, because they have a different experience.
"They have a daily burden from their disease and their symptoms, their work life, and their school life, is affected by their asthma.
"Yet they are living with a disease where people are thinking, 'It's just asthma'.
"So this website will actually provide some really nice information to help people to better understand the experience of people who live with severe asthma. It gives a great representation of what it's like so it can improve people's perception and acceptance of severe asthma as a debilitating disease."
Professor McDonald would be among the researchers presenting at the annual research day. She said the event was something of a "swan song", marking the end of the Centre's five-year funding cycle.
Other presenters include Professor Lorraine Smith, from the University of Sydney, and Michele Goldman, from Asthma Australia - who will talk about digital technology's role in personalised healthcare following the development of the "Kiss MyAsthma App".
Professor McDonald said the breathing difficulties experienced during the recent bush fires had highlighted how these extreme events could affect everyone - but particularly those with asthma and severe asthma.
"The advice is to stay indoors in times of high smoke levels, and don't exercise when the air quality is poor," she said.
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