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Timing, setting and form of education: There is insufficient evidence to decide upon the optimal timing, delivery setting and form of asthma education . Initiating the educational strategies while the patient is still in hospital has advantages. The individual has already been identified as being at ‘high risk’ for severe life-threatening asthma or death , they are accessible and (arguably) amenable to intervention, and it is possible to initiate a therapeutic relationship involving the patient’s physician. However, the hospital environment may not be an ideal setting for educational interventions, and the recently hospitalized patient may not be amenable to educational initiatives. Alternatively, out-patient interventions may take place in less stressful, more conducive surroundings with a greater likelihood of the patient establishing a meaningful therapeutic relationship and assimilating information. Evidence suggests that only a proportion of eligible patients take part in out-patient educational programs and nonattenders are more likely to be male, single, less well educated and current smokers . Those who fail to attend out-patient follow-up are those with the highest subsequent morbidity and mortality . To limit an intervention to clinic attendees may exclude those with the greatest contribution to morbidity statistics and health care costs. Offering outpatient appointments at times preferred by the patient (including beyond normal working hours) does not necessarily improve nonattendance (21; J Garrett, personal communication). In reality, the educational initiative is a continuum of care, merely beginning in hospital, and there are different roles for the interventions in the different settings.