The West Virginia Asthma Education and Prevention Program (AEPP) has a wide range of partnerships throughout the state in order to facilitate our mission and vision.  AEPP strives to provide current asthma guideline information, asthma education curriculums and resources, and to promote asthma awareness as a chronic disease to every corner of the State with the assistance of our partners. Some who share our mission and vision include: 

American Lung Association in West Virginia  

As a long standing national partner with this and other Asthma Programs, the American Lung Association is the oldest voluntary health organization in the United States, with a national office and constituent and affiliate offices around the country. Founded in 1904 to fight tuberculosis, the American Lung Association today fights lung disease in all its forms, with special emphasis on asthma, tobacco control and environmental health. The ALAWV was formed in 1954, serving all 55 counties in the state through education, community service, advocacy and research. 

 

Through a subcontract with the AEPP: ALA-WV manages the West Virginia Asthma Coalition - organizing meetings, activities, and events in the process of implementing the goals of the Strategic Plan for Addressing Asthma in West Virginia 2010-2014; works closely with AEPP in the development and facilitation of World Asthma Day, Asthma Awareness Day at the State Capitol, and other activities that raise awareness of the burden of asthma in West Virginia. 

West Virginia University School of Medicine’s Office of Health Services Research (OHSR) and Department of Pediatrics  

Through a subcontract with AEPP: OHSR conducts the Clinic-based Asthma Management Program (C-bAMP) in Community Health Centers, Free Clinics, and other rural health facilities in West Virginia. C-bAMP promotes the utilization of The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute’s (NHLBI) Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Management of Asthma Expert Panel Report 3 and empowers health care practitioners to provide the highest quality of care for their patients with asthma. This is made possible through a patient disease registry system, Chronic Disease Electronic Management System, or CDEMS that OHSR manages and provides technical support.

Since 2003, the OHSR has been working with the West Virginia Asthma Education and Prevention Program (AEPP) to aid in achieving the following:

• Enhanced surveillance of West Virginians with asthma, improved data on work-related asthma, and improved data on the uninsured/underinsured population with asthma;
• The implementation of school-based interventions for children with asthma, through the West Virginia American Lung Association and their use of the Open Airways for School and Indoor Air Quality Tools for Schools programs;
• The implementation of clinic-based intervention for patients with asthma for improved patient care by enhancing provider education and making available to providers an electronic patient registry enabling them to track patients on an individual and population level. 
• Improving quality improvement initiatives in clinics by utilizing the clinics' own registry data to improve quality of care of patients. This action is facilitated by the OHSR Health Improvement Coordinators and the program staff of OHSR.

Click here to view the C-bAMP Brochure  and the OHSR website for more information.

View the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute's Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Asthma

West Virginia Department of Tobacco Prevention

AEPP in partnership with the Department of Tobacco Prevention (DTP) created two 30-second commercials about Asthma and the effects of Second-Hand Smoke and Cigarette Smoking.  The commercials have been part of a pilot intervention that were broadcast in Wood County in 2008, reaching approximately 20% of the West Virginia population along with residents of Ohio. The commericials can be viewed on the DTP website: www.wvdtp.org. Also, the DTP in cooperation with AEPP developed an asthma section in their Smoking and Your Health brochure and the asthma specific Tobacco Use & Asthma  brochure that are currently available for clinics, health professionals, and public for free.

Please view them here: SMOKING AND YOUR HEALTH  and Tobacco Use & Asthma Trifold

Charleston Area Medical Center

CAMC Health Education and Research Institute, Inc. (CAMC Institute) is part of the CAMC health system, which is largest not-for-profit health system in West Virginia, and is the organization within responsible for research, continuing education, and oversight of external funding. CAMC Institute applied for funds on behalf of the CAMC Pulmonary Rehabilitation program specifically for the West Virginia Charleston Asthma Management Program for Seniors or WVChAMPS which is an asthma self-care management program geared directly for seniors. A Pulmonary Handbook for patients has been developed and being distributed and complete education curriculum and follow-up process is being finalized. The goal of this program is to reduce the burden of asthma in Southern West Virginia and with the senior population.

 

Additionally, CAMC Institute partnered with AEPP and the WVDHHR to update, produce, deliver and archive educational modules with the online education programs titled: Asthma Education for Primary Care Providers. This web-based curriculum is accessible to the public and is provided to healthcare providers at CAMC Hospital Systems by offering  CMEs for physicians and CEUs for nurses, respiratory therapists, and other ancillary staff.

 

Click on Asthma Education for Healthcare Providers to view the CAMC educational CE tool.

 

Asthma Education for the Primary Healthcare Provider flier