Written by Juan Tueme, MD candidate at Ponce Health Sciences University; RADIANCE Scholar in the Institute for Public Health Summer Research Program
Asthma is a chronic, preventable respiratory disease that even though the appropriate treatment exists, there is a lack of implementation of its therapy to diminish asthmatic exacerbations. As a student in the RADIANCE program, I have had the opportunity to dive deep into the barriers that prevent the implementation of the correct asthma therapy under the mentorship of James Krings, MD, an assistant professor at WashU School of Medicine.
From a lack of health provider awareness to pharmaceutical companies preventing its implementation, but what stood out to me the most was the lack of appropriate use of asthma action plans with adequate therapy SMART (Single Maintenance and Reliever Therapy). Having the appropriate asthma action plan opens the door to many accomplishments when treating an asthmatic patient. Many providers may find the current asthma action plan difficult to explain to the patient, making the patient even more confused about the treatment, especially when the patient’s health literacy is poor.
This is why during my experience in the RADIANCE program, I focused on creating a new asthma action plan for SMART, specifically tailored for kids 6-12 years old. By focusing more on its simplicity and clarity, with a reading language level of grades 3-4, physicians would be more capable of explaining to the patient, and the patient would understand what to do in any asthmatic situation based on the adequate guidance from the asthma action plan. Simultaneously, we focused on translating the new asthma action plan for kids and the existing SMART asthma action plans for adults and adolescents into multiple languages to make it much more accessible for people from diverse backgrounds who lack English literacy. Achieving this, not only do we focus on improving the implementation, but long-term, there will be a decrease in asthmatic exacerbations.
I would like to thank the Washington University School of Medicine and the Institute for Public Health RADIANCE program for this amazing opportunity and learning experience.