Disease management program improves asthma outcomes

Objective: To show that a disease management program that empowers patients with asthma to participate in the management of their condition can improv e quality of life and reduce the use of medical services. Study Design: Utilization and quality-of-rife data were tracked to identify outcome changes in patients with moderate to severe asthma. Baseline measu res were used as a control and were compared with measures taken at 6 and 1 2 months after enrollment. Patients and Methods: Study participants were from a single Medicaid manage d care plan in western Pennsylvania. Patients' quality of life during their participation in the program was tracked through an outside pharmacoepidem iologic research firm. Utilization data were updated with every interaction between a patient and case management nurse. Results: Both quality-of-life and utilization data show statistically signi ficant improvements at 6 months. Further, 12-month data show improvement th at is statistically significant in all measures with the exception of the a dult quality-of-life measure, where a small sample size limited the statist ical results. Conclusions: A collaborative, proactive approach to asthma management impro ves patients' quality of life and reduces use of costly medical services.