It is estimated that approximately 85% of all patients with asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in the UK1 and in the Netherlands2 are treated by a general practitioner (GP). This underlines the importance of providing good medical respiratory care in general practice. Strangely enough, guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of asthma and COPD have mainly been written by national or international thoracic societies. Of course, the GP has many diseases to deal with other than asthma and COPD alone, so one could argue that it is the chest physician who is the specialist and should therefore be the one to produce these guidelines. However, the patients seen by chest physicians often differ from those seen by GPs in the severity of their disease and consequently in their treatment. It would therefore seem logical to include primary care experts in asthma and COPD guideline panels in order to improve respiratory practice in primary care.

Research has shown that currently there are deficiencies in respiratory practice related to …