Establishing the foundations for development of a core outcome set for future clinical trials in acute severe asthma in children

We do not know the best treatment for children with severe asthma who present to the emergency department. This thesis reports a series of projects including a systematic review, analysis of clinical practice guidelines from 16 countries, interviews with patients and families in 12 countries, a study of >14,000 presentations to 18 hospitals across Australia/NZ, and a review of 1,572 Ambulance Victoria asthma cases. The work, conducted within a global paediatric emergency medicine research network, has laid the foundation to develop international agreement on the conduct and outcome measures for future emergency department clinical trials in children with severe asthma.