The Oasys audit scheme started in March 2010 to meet two main objectives. 1) To study the general and specific incidence of occupational asthma and 2) to audit diagnostic methods and objectives. The new Oasys program saves all anonymous data to a central database and thus all users of Oasys contribute to the scheme.

This table shows the number of Oasys records entered from March 2010 (when the new Oasys program was first available) until the end of 2010. The report from 2011 will be more accurate as it will cover an entire year and uptake of Oasys should improve.

The country is assigned from the email address of the user typing in the record. For example an email address ending in ".uk" indicates the United Kingdom. It is not possible to identify the country from all email address' (eg john.smith@gmail.com) so these are classified as "Unknown". It is also very difficult to classify American email address', as john.smith@gmail.com is officially an American email address, whereas in reality it could well be anywhere. We do identify some email address' as American, for example from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).

"Records" shows the total number of serial peak flow records that were entered during the year (the end date of the record must be in 2010 to count). "Quality records" shows records that meet the quality criteria for at least one of the automatic scoring systems in Oasys. "Positive records" are a subset of these with a positive automatic score. "Negative gold standards" show the number of records that have no work and are at least 14 days long. "Positive gold standards" show records that include an agent for which there is a positive IgE, Specific Inhalation Challenge, or other confirmatory test.

"New patients" is the number of new patients to the scheme during 2010. If an old record from 2009 is typed in during 2010 the record will count in the 2009 figures but the patient will count in the 2010 figures. Existing patients with additional records in 2010 are not counted. "New Patients Occupational Asthma" are a subset of these where the user has specified that occupational asthma is more likely than not. "New Patients Agent confirmed" is another subset where the user has specified an agent for which there is a positive IgE, Specific Inhalation Challenge, or other confirmatory test.

We have subtracted figures from the Shield scheme (West Midlands) from these figures, as this is reported separately.

Country	Records	Quality Records	Positive Records	Negative gold standards	Positive Gold Standards	New Patients	New Patients Occupational Asthma	New Patients Agent Confirmed
Denmark	32	20	5			33
France						1
Germany	1					3
Ireland	3	1				3
Italy	5	1	1		1	6
Korea	5	3	1			1
Slovakia	2	1	1			2
South Africa	2	1	1		1	2
Taiwan	5	3				4
The Netherlands	2	1				1
United Kingdom	165	101	53	4		149
Unknown	99	36	18	6	2	76

No personally identifiable details are ever sent to, or stored on the Oasys Server so it is not possible to classif the sex and ethnicity of patients. However users can enter Atopy, Smoking History and previous asthma. This information is all optional and at the moment very few users are choosing to enter it. When we get meaningful numbers for these we will report them here.

Records shows the total number of serial peak flow records that were performed during the year (the first date of the record must be in 2010 to count) and have the particular agent specified as a possible cause. Patients (from Records) shows the number of patients with at least one 2010 record with the agent specified. In Oasys, it is possible to specify agents for a patient as well as for a particular record for a patient. This can even be done to specify agents for a patient who does not have any serial peak flow records. Patients (from Audit) shows the number of these.

We classify the agents reported to the scheme where we can and all of the classifications are included in these figures. For example Chrome will be counted under "Chrome", "Metal Fumes" and "Low Molecular Weight Agents".

The agents with more than one reported case for 2010 are shown below.

Users can enter a variety of clinical and diagnostic information, such as the PD20 at work, Specific IgE results, Specific Inhalation Challenge tests and so on. This information is all optional and at the moment very few users are choosing to enter it. When we get meaningful numbers for these we will report them here.

The British Thoracic Society (BTS) recommends the tests that should be performed when investigating occupational asthma. This information can be entered into the Oasys program. This information is all optional and at the moment very few users are choosing to enter it. When we get meaningful numbers for these we will report them here.

We run the Shield surveillance scheme looking at occupational asthma in the West Midlands, UK. We use the data from the Oasys Audit scheme to do this. We would like to team up with other surveillance schemes to provide them with data for their schemes. This can be done by providing data based on users email address', but will be better if users explicitly state which surveillance scheme they would like to report to. At the moment we are in contact with ONAP, the French surveillance scheme. Unfortunately there is only one record that is verifiably from France. Hopefully this will improve.

We are interested in hearing from administrators of occupational asthma surveillance schemes from around the world. Please get in touch using the "Contact" link at the bottom of this page.

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