Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disorder of the airways. Despite major advances in understanding of its pathophysiology and management, asthma outcomes have not shown parallel improvement. Many patients with asthma are poorly controlled and have sub-optimal health status. Asthma care management by a trained non-physician health professional has developed as a means of addressing the problems of patients evidencing poor control and/or poor adherence to controller medications. Shared decision making (SDM) between clinician and patient has also been proposed as a means of getting greater patient involvement in their care, with the idea that this may improve medication adherence and outcomes. However, significant patient involvement also might result in less adequate regimens than would management based on guidelines (MBG). Even so, increased adherence to a less adequate regimen might result in better outcomes than poor adherence to an optimal regimen.