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Surveillance systems at the population level are of crucial importance to track diseases and detect trends over time. Among other benefits, these tools allow us to understand the distribution of diseases in the population and to translate historical data into public health interventions in order to reduce the global burden of diseases.1 Although asthma is the most common non-communicable disease in childhood and adolescence (about 1 out of 10 individuals have asthma, of whom almost half suffer from severe symptoms2), examples of nationwide public health initiatives tracking and reporting trends of the disease using population-based data derived from healthcare records are limited.3–5