Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #115895

Margaret Reid, RN¹, Polly Hoppin, ScD², Molly Jacobs, MPH², and Mary Ostrem, DrPH³. (1) Director of Asthma, Boston Public Health Commission, 1010 Massachusetts Ave, Boston, MA 02118, 617-534-5966, margaret_reid@bphc.org, (2) Environmental Health Initiative, University of Massachusetts Lowell, 800 Suffolk St., 5th Floor, Lowell, MA 01854, (3) Office of Research, Health Assessment and Data Systems, Boston Public Health Commission, 1010 Massachusetts Ave. 6th Floor, Boston, MA 02118

Asthma is the leading reason that Boston children visit the school nurse, miss school or go to the Emergency Department. Although asthma is a significant public health concern in Boston, the city lacks a uniform, comprehensive asthma surveillance system. Current sources of asthma data include surveys, hospital and emergency department discharge data and death records. Although these data provide useful measures of adverse asthma events, data are delayed by years and provide limited information on prevalence or incidence. In order to improve pediatric asthma surveillance, the Boston Public Health Commission piloted an asthma registry using data from a sample of Community Health Centers, several of which were developing patient registries. By coordinating the development of asthma patient registries with Community Health Centers and establishing a standardized system of data reporting, the Boston Public Health Commission, sought to improve both patient asthma management and better understand the burden of asthma. This information will help focus asthma prevention and control programs at the population-level. We will describe key elements of the project including: priority objectives, case definition, data elements, data reporting and dissemination procedures, and HIPAA issues. We will also provide results from the pilot and describe the process for expanding the project city-wide and using other data sources (e.g. environmental and housing).

Learning Objectives: The participant will be able to

• identify limitations and opportunities about using registries for asthma surveillance; and
• describe key components of an asthma registry.

Keywords: Asthma, Surveillance

Related Web page: www.bphc.org

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.

Recorded presentation