University of Colorado School of Medicine
Professor of Pediatrics
Presentation Abstract
Provider-to-Provider Telehealth Outcomes in Asthma: The Example of Rural Patients and Populations
Asthma disproportionately affects children living in disadvantaged communities. The well-documented disparities in asthma outcomes for minorities, including death, worse asthma control, greater likelihood of emergency room visits, and high rates of school absenteeism are partly related to unmet social determinants of health (SDOH) for low-income families. Many SDOH contribute to uncontrolled asthma for low-income families, such as lack of insurance and transportation. For the child with asthma, this leads to a lower likelihood of preventive care visits leading to more emergency visits and hospitalizations. Poor asthma control contributes to lower school performance due to missed school days and/or poor sleep quality. These are issues that are faced not only in urban settings but also in low-income rural settings. Access to specialty asthma care is one of the issues that face the management of children in low-income rural areas. Telemedicine offers the opportunity to link provider to provider to obtain an expert opinion for children with moderate to severe asthma. This lecture will summarize techniques available to enhance provider-to-provider communication in rural communities in comparison to local urban settings. It will highlight some of the resources available to local providers in contacting asthma specialty care that are not routinely available or utilized in rural settings. In addition, current efforts to enhance communication among rural and specialty care providers will be reviewed. Addressing these gaps in care with well-organized programs will improve the care of children with asthma in the rural setting.
About Dr. Szefler
Dr. Stanley Szefler is Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and the Director of the Pediatric Asthma Research Program for the Breathing Institute and the Section of Pediatric Pulmonary and Sleep Medicine at Children’s Hospital Colorado. He is also the Interim Medical Director of the Research Institute at Children’s Hospital Colorado.
Dr. Szefler’s major contributions are directed toward the individualized use of asthma therapy. He is currently the Co-Principal Investigator (PI) for the Denver site of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) Precision Interventions for Severe and/or Exacerbation-Prone Asthma (PrecISE) Network that is evaluating precision medicine for severe and exacerbation-prone asthma. For the past 15 years, he has directed a school-centered asthma program (AsthmaCOMP) funded by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment Cancer, Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Disease Program. He is also the Co-PI for the Colorado site of the NHLBI Disparities Elimination through Coordinated Interventions to Prevent and Control Heart and Lung Disease Risk (DECIPHeR) Alliance, which is focused on reducing asthma risk in children with health disparities in the State of Colorado.
Dr. Szefler disclosed the following conflicts of interest for this workshop: he is a consultant with Astra Zeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, Moderna, Propeller Health, Regeneron, and Sanofi, and he received a Research Grant from Propeller Health.