Since 2014, Chiesi Foundation supports “Partners in Care – Optimizing Asthma & COPD Diagnosis and Chronic Disease Management in Guyana”, a medical training project in the field of pulmonology. The project focuses on the development of specific clinical skills for the diagnosis and management of chronic respiratory diseases, such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), through the use of spirometry. The project is coordinated and managed by Prof. Robert Levy from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, in collaboration with the British Columbia Lung Association.

Optimal management of asthma relies on accurate diagnosis with spirometry, effective therapy, patient education and ongoing monitoring to assess severity and control. Before the GASP project started, both spirometry and education programmes for asthma and COPD were completely unavailable in Guyana. For this reason, the pilot project aimed at introducing the spirometry capacity and at developing a training program addressed to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) healthcare providers for the management of asthma. The second phase of the project will include the development of training programs focused on COPD, not included in the pilot intervention.