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Experts Announce Recommendations to Address Historically High Levels of Asthma in Children and Dramatically Higher Rates of Adverse Outcomes in Underserved Communities

Posted on: Thursday, 14 December 2006, 15:01 CST

WASHINGTON, Dec. 14 /PRNewswire/ -- A national panel of experts took steps today to close the treatment gaps for children with asthma, the most common chronic disease among children in the United States, which currently remains at historically high levels. These new recommendations were announced at a conference convened by the Merck Childhood Asthma Network, Inc. (MCAN), State of Childhood Asthma & Future Directions: Implementing Best Practices, which took place December 13-14, 2006, in Washington, DC.

"The prevalence of childhood asthma in the United States remains at unacceptable high levels," said Dr. Floyd J. Malveaux, Executive Director of MCAN and former Dean of the College of Medicine at Howard University. "Despite the resources that currently exist, overwhelming disparities have continued to grow, particularly in underserved communities across the United States. Moving forward, we need to apply what we know about the best practices in treating this disease to reduce the burden of this condition in all communities. It is our hope that the outcomes of this conference will serve as a catalyst for action."

Today's conference convened a national panel of experts and thought leaders from multiple disciplines across the United States to identify, discuss and recommend implementation strategies for best practices in research, policy, management, and prevention that will begin to close the gap between recommended and actual childhood asthma management. Specific findings and recommendations included:

* General Recommendation -- Encourage the federal agencies to develop a coordinated asthma research strategy across all agencies. * Share Community Data -- Develop a national network for local asthma surveillance to gather, evaluate, and disseminate asthma information (e.g., incidence, prevalence, cost, morbidity, mortality, SES and ethnicity) to key community audiences -- policy makers, healthcare professionals, researchers, communities, families and their children. * Develop Educational Tools -- Engage and equip asthma care team with tools that provide them with the knowledge, skills and resources to effectively advise patients about environmental triggers including smoking cessation, allergen mitigation, and public education classes for families. * Create a National Movement -- Galvanize a national children's asthma movement focusing on key policy issues and barriers to quality care. This leadership coalition will be charged with establishing strategies for: -- Promoting and implementing the adoption of the revised National Asthma Education and Prevention Program (NAEPP) guidelines scheduled for release in 2007. -- Identifying data on the cost-effectiveness and return on investment of quality initiatives and best practices. -- Developing a repository of best practices and quality information. -- Protecting the program that provides early periodic screening, detection and treatment for children, which is critical to help the most vulnerable children. -- Utilize social marketing strategies to convey important asthma messages to key audiences and general public. In addition, work with CMS to assess best practices in Medicaid and S- CHIP and promote best practices across the country. This includes evaluation of reimbursement strategies to ensure that those who are most at need receive access to quality care. * Implement Known Effective Strategies -- Improve quality care for all children with asthma by targeting key influentials such as CEOs of health plans, MCO managers, community-based organizations and other public and private reimbursers of care. These influentials should invest resources in evidence-based community and individual interventions and implement tailored intervention strategies that focus on individualized risks.

"We face a major challenge and opportunity to address this urgent public heath issue, and the recommendations from this conference are an important step in addressing some of the gaps and opportunities in the management of asthma in children," said Dr. Nicole Lurie, Senior Natural Scientist and Professor of Policy Analysis at The RAND Corporation. "The burden of childhood asthma is a major public health problem. It is our hope that these recommendations will help eliminate the disparities in childhood asthma and reduce the asthma-related burdens experienced by these children and their families."

About Childhood Asthma:

Childhood asthma is the most common chronic disease among children in the United States. Today, more than 6 million children in the United States suffer from asthma, which remains the third leading cause of hospitalizations among children under the age of 15. The debilitating effects of this condition are well-documented and exact a huge toll on the affected children and their families, especially in medically underserved communities. Asthma may limit a child's ability to play, learn, and sleep and necessitates potentially complex and expensive interventions. Childhood asthma also results in both direct medical costs and indirect costs (approximately $16.1 billion annually), including missed workdays for caregivers and nearly 15 million missed school days for children annually.

Moreover, children living in poverty, especially in inner cities, continue to suffer disproportionately from the disease having dramatically higher rates of adverse outcomes, such as emergency department visits, hospitalizations and death. Overall, while asthma is a treatable disease, actual treatment falls far short of recommended care for many children.

About the Conference

The State of Childhood Asthma & Future Directions: Strategies for Implementing Best Practices conference was hosted by the Merck Childhood Asthma Network (MCAN) on December 13-14, 2006. Its purpose was to convene a round table of experts and thought leaders from multiple disciplines across the United States to discuss specifics on best strategies and implementation moving forward, focusing on the role of government, private enterprise, healthcare professionals and the general public.

Key topics of discussion at the conference included current trends in childhood asthma in the United States, quality care challenges and opportunities, and priority strategies to implement best practices. Participants included several government institutes; key academic, physician, and public health experts; and thought leaders from various non-profit and research organizations.

A Web cast of the entire conference proceedings will be available for viewing at http://www.mcanonline.org/ beginning Wednesday, December 20.

About the Merck Childhood Asthma Network, Inc. (MCAN)

The Merck Childhood Asthma Network, Inc. (MCAN) is a non-profit, 501(c)(3) organization established to address the complex and growing problem of pediatric asthma. MCAN is funded by The Merck Company Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the global research-driven pharmaceutical company Merck & Co., Inc. The mission of the Merck Childhood Asthma Network is to support and advance evidence-based programs that improve the quality of life for children with asthma and their families and to reduce through dissemination of effective interventions the burden of the disease on them and society.

In December 2005, MCAN awarded its first grants to childhood asthma programs in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia and San Juan, Puerto Rico. These programs were chosen through a competitive application process, and all involve a consortium of community and individual partners. Each targets communities with a high prevalence of pediatric asthma and has potential for national replication. Additionally, MCAN is currently working with community, academic, federal and local government partners to implement the HEAL (Head-off Environmental Asthma in Louisiana) project, which is intended to learn more about and address the development and exacerbation of asthma symptoms in post-Katrina New Orleans. For more information on MCAN, please visit http://www.mcanonline.org/.

Merck Childhood Asthma Network, Inc.

CONTACT: Michael Szumera, +1-917-573-8630, Michael.Szumera@bm.com, orYvonne Lachmann, +1-410-627-9749, Yvonne.Lachmann@bm.com, both of Burson-Marsteller, for the Merck Childhood Asthma Network, Inc.

Web site: http://www.mcanonline.org/

Source: PRNewswire

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