Verantos and Vanderbilt Health present severe asthma care findings at CHEST 2026

Global asthma guidelines recommend that patients with severe asthma see an asthma specialist and be considered for treatment with a biologic. A new study from Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Verantos finds that few patients in a large US academic health system receive either. The findings were presented on October 21 at CHEST 2026, the annual meeting of the American College of Chest Physicians.

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Key findings

The study followed 1,127 patients aged 12 and older who were diagnosed with severe asthma from 2020 through 2023.

• About one in five patients (19.9%) saw an allergist or pulmonologist within 12 months of diagnosis. This rate held steady across all four years.
• Only 6.8% of patients received a biologic during follow-up, even though 94% had an inhaled corticosteroid prescription and 56% had at least one oral corticosteroid prescription in the year before diagnosis.
• Patients who received specialist care were more likely to receive a biologic (15.6% compared with 4.5%). After adjusting for age, sex, race, ethnicity, insurance, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, specialist care was associated with 77% higher odds of biologic treatment (odds ratio 1.77; 95% confidence interval 1.09 to 2.87).
• Patients with Medicare were less likely than privately insured patients to receive a biologic (odds ratio 0.40; 95% confidence interval 0.16 to 0.91).

What it means

Specialist care is associated with greater use of biologics, but biologic use remains low even among patients who see specialists. These results point to concrete opportunities for health systems to improve referral and treatment for patients with severe asthma. Event counts for the year-by-year biologic analyses were small, so changes over time should be interpreted with caution.

About the data

The study used the INSIGHTS Pragmatic Registry, a longitudinal registry of patients with severe asthma built from routine clinical care. The registry links claims, structured and unstructured electronic health record data, and death registry data. Patients with severe asthma were identified through diagnosis codes, physician notes, or a guideline-based algorithm. Verantos optimizes and reports the reliability of registry data.

Poster details

Title: Healthcare system-level data identifies critical gaps in severe asthma care
Authors: Katherine N. Cahill, MD (Vanderbilt University Medical Center); Rayna K. Matsuno, PhD, MPH (Verantos); Daniel J. Riskin, MD, FACS (Verantos; Stanford University School of Medicine)
Session: Evidence, Guidelines and QI Scientific Abstract Posters (A): Evidence-based medicine
Poster: 4604
Date: October 21, 2026, 10:20 to 11:05 am