Australian Centre for Airways Disease Monitoring

• A centre of excellence in respiratory data
• National datasets on breathlessness and difficult-to-treat asthma
• High quality data analysis and interpretation for policy, advocacy, practice and research

About us

The Australian Centre for Airways disease Monitoring (ACAM) was established in 2002. Our reports have been used to guide policy and guideline development in chronic respiratory disease. We regularly provide advice and recommendations for data development to assist with national monitoring of respiratory conditions.

ACAM conducted two large web surveys of adults which provide a unique data source to estimate how many Australian adults have breathlessness and to understand the burden of this breathlessness in terms of symptoms experienced, quality of life and healthcare use. ACAM also conducted a separate, web-based survey in early 2021 to identify Australian adults with difficult-to-treat asthma.

ACAM authored the Asthma in Australia report series, published in 2003, 2005, 2008 and 2011 by AIHW and 22 other reports which analysed national data sources on deaths, hospitalisations and medication use for respiratory conditions and were used in policy development.

Within six months of the massive thunderstorm asthma epidemic in Melbourne in November 2016, ACAM had convened a national workshop involving a large range of stakeholders involved in health protection to develop a collaborative approach to national surveillance for respiratory epidemics such as this.

ACAM was originally called The Australian Centre for Asthma Monitoring. In July 2014, the 'Asthma' in ACAM was changed to 'Airways disease' to more accurately reflect the scope of monitoring at the Centre.

Contact us on acam@woolcock.org.au.