The project aims at establishing and improving asthma disease management result through more standardized clinic information and pathways, better doctor/patient communication and long-term big data analysis.

It is estimated that the project will cover at least 60,000 asthma patients in regular management in three years.

Prof Rongchang Chen, head of GIRD, said that through partnership with leading multi-national pharma companies like GSK, "we would fully leverage the new study concept and transformation of medical science to change the traditional model of diagnosis and treatment."

"The grassroots patients will benefit from advanced options of diagnosis and treatment, and academic evidence will be provided to support the policies of health and reimbursement, as well as personalized treatment strategies which will fit grassroots healthcare," said Chen.

Thomas Willemsen, general manager of GSK China Pharma and Vaccines, said:" Through this partnership with GIRD we hope to help generate valuable data to improve patients' health across all regions of China. Importantly, we hope it can make a contribution to the process of improving grassroots health capabilities and a tiered-healthcare system."

"Furthermore as a multinational pharmaceutical company headquartered in the UK, we hope this project can be an important highlight in UK-China people-to-people cooperation promoting joint scientific collaboration," Willemsen added.

Respiratory diseases are recognized by the World Health Organization as one of the four major diseases affecting people's health.