Primary Care Pathway for Childhood Asthma

Summary

At least half of children with asthma have poor disease control, which can result in complications requiring emergency treatment and hospitalization. As asthma is one of the most common reasons for children to visit emergency departments (ED) and be hospitalized, this disease places a heavy burden on the health care system and families. While there is strong evidence that timely treatment with preventative therapies can substantially improve asthma control, reduce sudden worsening of symptoms, and lower rates of ED visits and hospitalizations, a significant proportion of children do not receive these therapies.

The purpose of this study is to improve the prescription and use of evidenced-based preventative therapies for children with asthma with the goal to significantly improve their disease control and quality of life, while reducing unnecessary ED visits and hospitalizations. The investigators will achieve this by: i) installing a primary care clinical pathway for managing childhood asthma into clinicians' electronic medical record (EMR) to facilitate the use of best-evidence by practitioners, and ii) training chronic disease management (CDM) health professionals to provide targeted and timely asthma education to parents and children with asthma. The investigators will test this pathway and education project in a representative sample of 22 Alberta primary care practices, using a pragmatic cluster controlled trial methodology.

Conditions

• Asthma

Interventions

OTHER

Primary care clinical pathway

Installing a primary care clinical pathway for managing childhood asthma into clinicians' electronic medical record (EMR) to facilitate the use of best-evidence by practitioners.

OTHER

Asthma education

Physicians will receive web-based education through an interactive learning module regarding best management for childhood asthma and use of the primary care clinical pathway. Chronic disease management (CDM) health professionals in practices will attend asthma education sessions delivered by an asthma educator. This training will be then used by the CDM professional to provide targeted and timely asthma education to parents and children with asthma.

OTHER

EMR embedded dashboard

An EMR embedded dashboard will deliver real-time feedback to clinicians.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Alberta Innovates Health Solutions

  collaborator OTHER

• Alberta Health Services, Calgary

  collaborator OTHER

• Health Quality Council of Alberta (HQCA)

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• University of Calgary

  collaborator OTHER

• Ottawa Hospital Research Institute

  collaborator OTHER

• TELUS

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• University of Alberta

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Andrew Cave, FCFP, FRCGP · Department of Family Medicine, University of Alberta

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

1 Year

Max Age

17 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2015-04-30

Primary Completion

2018-06-30

Completion

2019-03-31

Countries

• Canada

Study Locations