Web-based education for asthma, anaphylaxis improved quality of care

ATLANTA — Both pediatricians and allergists demonstrated improved quality of care for patients with asthma and anaphylaxis following web-based education program, according to research presented at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology.

“We found that our quality improvement could be helped by having a web-based educational program available through a webinar database, which is very convenient and allows us to reach more providers,” Irum Noor, DO, from Winthrop University Hospital, told Infectious Diseases in Children. “Through this program, health care providers can improve care for patients with asthma and anaphylaxis, as well as access resources and compile data. Instead of calculating the data ourselves, these programs are able to do that for us so that we know what areas we need to work on.”

Irum Noor

To address gaps in the implementation of evidence-based care for asthma and anaphylaxis, Noor and colleagues conducted a web-based learning initiative at pediatric and allergy/immunology offices that were part of the Medical Home Chapter Champions Program on Asthma, Allergy, and Anaphylaxis from January to July 2016.

The researchers used educational webinars, physician lectures and updates in the electronic medical record as interventions, and examined their impact on asthma action plans, inhaler technique, spirometry, appropriate epinephrine prescription, allergy/anaphylaxis action plans, self-injectable epinephrine technique and patient engagement.

According to study findings, all examined measures showed significant improvement from 142 patients treated in pediatricians’ offices and 50 patients in allergy/immunology offices.

Use of asthma action plan improved from 4.2% to 8.3% among pediatricians, and 0% to 100% among allergist/immunologists;
Proper inhaler technique increased from 29.2% to 50% in pediatric offices and from 66.7% to 100% in allergy/immunology offices;
Spirometry rose from 5.6% to 16.7% for pediatricians and from 33.3% to 100% for allergist/immunologists;
Use of allergy/anaphylaxis action plans rose from 0% to 4% in pediatric offices, and 14.3% to 100% in allergy/immunology offices;
Appropriate epinephrine prescription improved from 77.8% to 84% for pediatrics, while epinephrine prescriptions remained at 100% for allergy/immunology;
Aptitude for self-injectable epinephrine technique rose from 16.7% to 76% for pediatricians, and from 85.7% to 100% for allergist/immunologists;
Patient engagement rose from 11.9% to 59.7% in pediatric offices and from 7.7% to 100% in allergy/immunology offices.

“What we found through our study is that this needs to be regular education – if you don’t have someone that is reminding you or telling you to log in, then you will lose the compliance,” Noor said. “We found that having prompts in the EMRs was the best way to ensure more regular follow-up and more check-ins from the providers. Going forward, we are looking at more prompts that we can put in for primary care providers. By making shortcuts in the EMR, it might make it better.”—by Katherine Bortz

Reference:

Noor I, et al. Abstract 178. Presented at: American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology Annual Meeting; March 3-6, 2017; Atlanta.

Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.