Asthma is a chronic respiratory disease that is widespread throughout the US population and disproportionately affects children, 6 million (0 - 17 years old) in the U.S. alone. That's an average of 1 in 12 children and families impacted by this disease process. Pediatric or Childhood asthma is a major common chronic respiratory illness characterized by wheezing, coughing, shortness of breath and airflow limitation, which affects daily life. It is a costly disease, that is significantly more expensive and scary for families to handle if not managed well.
Create a multi-purpose tool to help parents and families helping their children to better manage asthma. Children diagnosed with asthma are prescribed by their provider "as needed" treatment regimens based on their symptom severity and frequency of onset. This program will prompt users to answer a short questionnaire when/if a child is exhibiting symptoms and based on their responses the directions for the recommended treatment plan will populate to prompt their prescribed optimal course of management. The output will return the recommended treatment option, such as their prescribed “as needed” medication management or based on severity or length of symptoms would notify the patient to contact their provider or seek immediate medical care. This will provide timely clarification of when pediatric patients should initiate their "as needed" treatment. Though patients and caregivers often receive discharge education and treatment plans written up, their confidence in understanding of the treatment plan and when to initiate can be inconsistent. Given limitations in access to care and reaching ones’ care team for clarification, it can be a timely and stressful process, and duplicate work for the clinic. For this program, the intent is to have the child's treatment plan fed into the software manually or as a drop down - based on clinical practice guidelines.
(Very longterm - Optimally this would be entered in the software via the clinic's patient portal but the scope of this program at this time will not be connected to a patient portal for the treatment plan clarity). The clinic’s future ability to prepare an automated protocol within the patient’s portal that would feed to this software’s output could enhance patient outcomes, track symptoms, and simultaneously when patient’s begin acute treatment for their asthma.
The goal of this project is to bridge the gap in “as needed” asthma treatment management for children. Encounters with providers and care teams can often be brief, yet dense regarding all that’s discussed. Though discharge education and treatment plans may be discussed or even provided on a discharge sheet before departing a visit, there’s not always 100% confidence in “when to do what” from the standpoint of managing pediatric asthma. Leaving a message with the clinic or attempting to get in with the provider can delay care that parents and home caregivers can otherwise have at their fingertips. This seeks to alleviate the stress over questioning when the right time to initiate the appropriate inhaler or steroid is, or when the severity of symptoms necessitates seeing a provider straight away (urgent care, ER, or acute PCM visit), by directing patients to the best care right away. Ultimately, as a result of the direction our software recommends, we anticipate patients will experience better health outcomes associated with asthma, and better track how someone’s asthma has been managed to assist providers in adjusting future treatment plans. Optimally, our software will allow providers to see what symptoms and treatments a patient has experienced between physical visits, providing valuable information to assist in provider follow-up visits.
Bryana Higginbotham, Joli Miracle, and Jasmine Williams
Asthma symptoms and management zones: https://www.aafa.org/asthma-symptoms/?gclid=Cj0KCQiA37KbBhDgARIsAIzce16ctdU7kiIq8DD3lXboG_eS3b383vV9bvWTGGnuQZdn1OImEqGBoUwaArjCEALw_wcB
Asthma Disparities in America: It’s Time for Real and Lasting Change | Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (aafa.org)
CDC Asthma Action Plan The Economic Burden of Pediatric Asthma in the United States: Literature Review of Current Evidence - PMC (nih.gov)