The West Virginia Asthma Education and Prevention Program has a wide range of partnerships throughout the state in order to facilitate our mission and vision. AEPP is striving to provide the most current literature and education on Asthma to every corner of the state with the help of others. Some of our partnerships include:
PARTNERSHIPS
American Lung Association of West Virginia
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 WV-AEPP: ALA-WV manages the West Virginia Asthma Coalition; works closely with AEPP in the development and facilitation of World Asthma Day, Asthma Awareness Day at the State Capitol, and other activities.
West Virginia University School of Medicine’s Office of Health Services Research and Department of Pediatrics
Through subcontracts with the WV-AEPP: conducts the Clinic-based Asthma Management Program (C-bAMP) in community health centers. C-bAMP promotes utilization of the National Heart, Blood & Lung Institute’s (NHBLI) Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Management of Asthma, and empowers health care practitioners to provide the highest quality of care for their patients with asthma. This is possible through a patient registry system called CDEMS that OHSR manages and provides technical support.
Since 2003, the OHSR has been working with the West Virginia Asthma Education and Prevention Program (WVAEPP) 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
Please view the C-bAMP Brochure and the OHSR website concerning C-bAMP and the CDEMS patient registry.
West Virginia Department of Tobacco Prevention
AEPP in partnership with the DTP created two 30-second videos about Asthma and the effects of Second-Hand and Cigarette Smoking. The videos have been part of a pilot intervention and have been broadcast in Wood County, reaching approximately 20% of the West Virginia population along with residents of Ohio. The videos can be viewed on the WV DTP website: www.wvdtp.org. Also, the WV-DTP in cooperation with AEPP is adding an asthma section to their smoking and your health brochure that is to be published in late 2008 to be distributed to the public for free.
Please view it here: SMOKING AND YOUR HEALTH
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 is applying for funds on behalf of the CAMC Pulmonary Rehabilitation program specifically for a self-care management program for seniors with asthma. A Pulmonary Handbook for patients is currently being developed as well as a complete education and follow-up policy. The goal of this program is to reduce the burden of asthma in Southern West Virginia and with Seniors.
CAMC Institute has partnered with AEPP and the WVDHHR to update, produce, deliver and archive modules associated with the on-line education programs titled: Asthma Education for Primary Care Providers. This web-based curriculum is open to the public and is provided to healthcare providers at CAMC Hospital Systems and for others to offer for CME's for physicians and CEU's for nurses and respiratory therapists.
Click on Asthma Education for Healthcare Providers to view the CAMC educational CE tool.
Asthma Education for the Primary Healthcare Provider flier
ED Pilot Project
The ED Pilot Project is a project that was developed in partnership with the West Virginia Hospital Association and two (2) in-state hospitals, Camden-Clark Hospital and United Hospital. This project was created to organize a collaborative effort to implement a pilot project aimed at reducing asthma-related hospitalizations among patients who receive treatment for asthma in Emergency Departments.
The main objectives of this project are to: Implement the pilot asthma intervention in one hospital Emergency Department in West Virginia, with the intent to achieve a significant positive change from baseline for each of the asthma indicators; and secondly, to evaluate the pilot asthma intervention by measuring the total number of primary asthma admissions through the ED during the pilot, the total number of asthma-related ED visits, and develop a system to identify individuals who return to the ED for asthma-related problems. This project is still "in progress" at this time and has not been implemented in any other locations.
West Virginia Asthma Coalition - Schools and Pediatrics Committee
The schools and pediatric committee is currently implementing a quality improvement project targeting asthma control by collaborating with school nurses, school-based health centers (SBHCs), parents and providers to strengthen student asthma care. School nurses and SBHCs will conduct an intervention with students who carry inhalers by measuring their asthma control, tracking school absences, providing education and referral to primary care providers based on the NHLBI guidelines. The priority counties included in this project are: Fayette,and Raleigh.
By acquiring three data collections per student over one year, the desired outcome is to have improved asthma control, decrease absences related to asthma, recognized care plan and improved collaboration between schools, parents and providers. Pilot site coordinators, along with county health departments, regional tobacco specialists, applicable staff and SBHCs will be trained at the June 2008 Summer Institute. The training consists of educating the participants on the asthma project with an overview of the roles and responsibilities of each pilot site.