Current epidemiological data on asthma management in South Korea from qualitative assessment of asthma management by Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA)

Since 2015, the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA) has performed annual qualitative assessments of asthma management provided by all medical institutions that care for asthma patients in Korea. According to the third report of qualitative assessment of asthma management in 2017, the assessment appears to have contributed to improving the quality of asthma care provided by medical institutions, especially primary clinics. However, there is still a gap between the ideal goals of asthma management and actual health care policies/regulations in real clinical settings, which leads to the state of standstill with respect to the quality of asthma management despite considerable efforts such as the qualitative assessment of asthma management by national agencies such as the HIRA. At this point, a harmonized approach is needed to raise the level of asthma management among several components including medical policies, efforts of academic associations such as education and distribution of the guideline for management, and reliable financial support by the government.