Breath of Life Index - Children's Asthma Quality of Life Research

BREATHE California of Los Angeles County co-funds innovative asthma study with California Community Foundation

Dr. Kenny Y.C. Kwong, Chief of Division of Allergy-Immunology and Director of the Allergy-Immunology Fellowship Training Program at Los Angeles County, USC Medical Center has been awarded a clinical research grant from BREATHE LA to create and validate a Breath of Life Index©.

While asthma management and patient tracking exists, this study differs as it will capture management interventions and the measurable impact of a reduction in exposure to asthma triggers on quality of life measures in asthmatic children.

Potential Impact for Children with Asthma

On behalf of the BREATHE LA Program and Research Committee, co-chairs Dr. Guy Soo Hoo and Dr. Jud Schoendorf express their enthusiasm for the potential impact this research could have on improving the quality of life of asthmatic children. The beauty of this study is that current existing measures do not provide acceptable sensitivity and specificity in predicting the risk of future asthma exacerbations in asthmatic children.

Dr. Kwong’s team is forging ahead with this innovative study to address the urgent need of creating a reproducible and accurate method to assess the risk of future asthma exacerbations in children. The study is designed to create a tool that is easy to use by a large number of clinicians, care givers, and parents.

Asthma Lung Power Inspires Research

BREATHE LA created the RFP for this study in response to observations during the administration of its Lung Power asthma management program, of deficiencies in the current asthma management paradigm that has been focused on educating children on triggers and medications. While an essential component of asthma management, it was recognized that there needed to be a simple tool for parents and caregivers to gauge the severity, trends, and potential triggers of asthma in order to improve communication and asthma management with their child. The Breath of Life Index© is expected to fill this void and become an important component of complete and improved asthma management.

Further reports on this study will be available in August of 2009.

Average:

0

 

Your rating: Select ratingPoorOkayGoodGreatAwesome