Adherence in severe asthma: time to get it right

How many times have you sat in an asthma consultation and asked a patient “how many doses of your inhaler have you forgotten to take in that last week?” There are times when you may understandably question the person's response, and other times when you will be convinced that they “take their puffers without fail” only to subsequently discover that you have been mistaken. Whilst clinicians want to understand the individual's level of treatment adherence, this approach is clearly flawed and we need to do better.