Asthma Tools to Improve Practice

This is a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to test the effectiveness of the Asthma APGAR system in rural family medicine practices. Twenty rural family medicine practices (members of a PBRN) will be randomized to intervention: implementation and integration of the Asthma APGAR, or usual care. Outcomes will include patient asthma outcomes as well as practice process measures. Participating practices will have 15 months to enroll approximately 75 patients, with a 24-month follow-up period for each patient enrolled. Patients enrolled must have a current diagnosis of asthma, be between the ages of 5 – 60, and agree to complete 5 survey packets at baseline, 6, 12, 18, and 24 months.

The specific aims for this project are:
- To improve patient-oriented and practice process outcomes for asthma care.
- To maintain the improvements over 2 years.
- To explore facilitators and barriers of implementing the Asthma APGAR tools and changes in asthma care within and across family medicine practices.

This project will be conducted from August 2010 through August 2015

This project is currently collecting data.

For additional information about this study, please contact:

Jessica Huff, MS
AAFP National Research Network
1-800-274-2237
jessica.huff@ucdenver.edu

Debbie Graham, MSPH
AAFP National Research Network
1-800-274-2237, x3176
dgraham@aafp.org

This project was funded by a grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.