The Allergy & Asthma NetWork, the nation’s leading patient education and advocacy organization for people with allergy and asthma, has once again joined forces with the CHEST Foundation in an effort to empower patients suffering from severe asthma.
The campaign’s focus is to educate health-care providers, patients, parents of asthmatics, and the public about the most current treatment options for asthma, highlight the importance of referring to specialists to improve patient outcomes, and bring to light the role of the entire health-care team in the care of a patient with severe or difficult-to-control asthma.
Severity Assessment Tool
Available online and in print, the severity assessment tool was designed to help a patient, and the clinician, understand the severity of their asthma. Not only does the tool evaluate the severity of their condition, but it also helps the patient become more aware of their symptoms. The seven-question assessment includes questions on usage of quick-relief or rescue inhalers, visits to the ED/hospital, physical activity, controller medication, and quality of sleep.
Patient and Caregiver Testimonials
The campaign features several patient and caregiver testimonials that tell the stories of patients and parents of children with severe asthma.
“What we want people to understand, is that at the time of Ben’s passing, he was on a preventive med. He was going to the doctor routinely. We had actually just been to the asthma doctor. We were seeing somebody, had an action plan, and everybody knew what they had to do. Even with all of that, it still came to this. Benjamin still lost his life, and we never knew this was something that could happen,” stated Cristin Buckley, mother of Benjamin Buckley who was 7 years old at the time of his death. These testimonial videos will be used to raise awareness of the condition, and the importance of managing and monitoring symptoms.
Shared Decision Making Tool
Thank You to Our Supporters
The CHEST Foundation and Allergy and Asthma Network would like to thank our generous supporters, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, GlaxoSmithKline, and Novartis for making this campaign possible. It is through supporters, who are active participants in helping grow this campaign, that these important materials are able to have an impact on patient outcomes and create long-lasting social change.
To view the campaign materials, visit us at asthma.chestnet.org.