Editor’s Note
The latest version of the Spanish Guide for Asthma Management (GEMA 5.2) has been released, featuring key updates on severe asthma treatment, associated conditions, and special clinical circumstances. It is now freely available for download.
Coinciding with World Asthma Day, the 2022 update of the Spanish Guide for Asthma Management (GEMA) has been published. It is now available for free download. Specifically, the new GEMA 5.2 incorporates the most relevant bibliographic citations published in the last period.
The main updates in this version pertain to the chapters on maintenance treatment for severe asthma, rhinitis and rhinosinusitis associated with asthma, uncontrolled severe asthma, and special circumstances.
Vicente Plaza, the guide’s coordinator, explains the inclusion of a new combination of indacaterol and mometasone for the maintenance treatment of severe asthma. Another notable update is the inclusion of an algorithm for the safe reduction and withdrawal of oral glucocorticoids. In this way, GEMA 5.2 becomes the first guide to help physicians safely taper oral corticosteroids.
GEMA was born as a Spanish clinical practice guide. However, over the years it has consolidated into a larger project and has become a worldwide reference. Currently, the GEMA 5.2 guide involves 17 scientific societies from Spain, Portugal, and Latin America.
Furthermore, alongside this latest update comes the revision of the ‘3rd ed. University Expert Course in Biological Treatment of Asthma’. This is a 100% online training promoted by GEMA. It also has the backing of the Spanish Society of Pulmonology and Thoracic Surgery (SEPAR). Thus, it includes all the novelties of GEMA 5.2 related to this type of therapy.
The program, aimed at pulmonologists, allergists, and hospital pharmacists interested in severe asthma, aims to update these specialists on the criteria for choosing therapies, so they can improve their patients’ health outcomes by personalizing treatment as much as possible.