Using Technology to improve asthma care and communication between health care providers, schools and families

Asthma is estimated to occur in 7% of school-age children, although population-based prevalence studies in the Rochester Epidemiology Project have placed this estimate closer to 12%. Among Minnesota children with asthma, more than half had an asthma attack in the past year. School staff, families and healthcare professionals play an important role in helping students with asthma manage their disease at school. The Collaborative Asthma Project in SE Minnesota initiated a collaboration among local health care providers, local public health, and several school districts to identify and manage asthma cases using an asthma action plan that is shared through an exchange by electronic health information system. To continue this initiative, support was provided by SE MN Beacon project, a community-based program that is currently developing a variety of “best practice” approaches to improving health and health care delivery in the United States. Substantial evidence links poorly controlled asthma to poor childhood school performance and attendance and by improving the communication between home, school and health care providers; the student with asthma can experience better care management and health outcomes.