The Canadian Lung Association has a motto on its website: "Don’t let asthma manage you; you manage your asthma." That’s good advice, says Dr. Andrew Cave, a family physician and University of Alberta family medicine professor. “The problem is that asthma is an individual disease. Your asthma is different than another person’s. You have to understand how to manage your own disease. This is what makes asthma education so important.”Most asthma patients in Alberta miss out on specialized education programs. Qualified asthma educators typically work in hospitals and asthma centres, but 70% of asthmatics do not go to a hospital for treatment. They see their family physician. This makes the doctor’s office the logical place for patients to receive asthma education.
Specialized education
Easier said than done. Family physicians’ busy practices do not lend themselves to education, and most practices do not have a nurse on staff who might cover that role. Dr. Cave began to wonder whether an asthma educator working part-time in a number of doctor’s offices might be the answer. He recently received funding for a research project to test a special education program for patients with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). It will be delivered one-on-one in doctors’ offices by a trained asthma/COPD educator.
Dr. Cave hopes to involve 50 doctors’ offices throughout the province in the study. Patients who participate will be followed for one year. Various measures of success will be used, including quality of life, lung function, and healthcare utilization.
Helping patients
Three health regions are affiliated with the project: Capital Health, the Calgary Health Region, and the David Thompson Health Authority. “There is a real interest in finding out the best way to spend money on helping patients with asthma and COPD,” says Dr. Cave. “Keeping them out of hospital is an important step, but not the only one. We need to find cost-effective ways to deliver patient education that improves quality of life.”
Credentials and publications
Dr. Andrew Cave is a full professor and director of research in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Alberta. His “Respiratory Educators in Primary Care” study is funded by the Health Research Fund, administered by AHFMR on behalf of Alberta Health and Wellness. Dr. Cave is also on the scientific steering committee of the AIMS (Alberta Improvements for Musculoskeletal Disorders Study) project at the Institute of Health Economics.
Selected publication
Cave AJ, Wright A, Dorrett J, McErlain M. Evaluation of a nurse-run asthma clinic in general practice. Primary Care Respiratory Journal 2001;10(3):65-68.