Asthma patient education: Current utilization in pulmonary training programs

The national guidelines for the diagnosis and management of asthma publishe d in April of 1997 emphasized patient education in asthma management. It is unclear how often patient education is included in asthma management clini cs. We sought to determine how often education programs are available by su n,eying reaching hospitals with training programs in pulmonary and critical care medicine. Using this survey, we also determined the reason programs a re not offered and whether computer resources are routinely available to ut ilize computer-delivered patient educational materials. We sent mail questi onnaires to 163 training programs in the United States. We had a response r ate of 72%(117 of 163). Of the 117 programs responding, 75 (64%) reported h aving a formal asthma patient education program. Most (72%) were in univers ity teaching hospitals. A majority of respondents (84%) believed that compe nsation for their efforts was inadequate, and those hospitals with no forma l asthma education program reported that financial cost and time requiremen ts were the primary reasons for not having such a program. Despite the fact that many programs did not have a patient education component, 96% (72 of 75) of respondents with an educational program viewed patient education as an effective patient self-management tool. Of all programs surveyed, 85% re ported they would use a high-quality computer-based asthma education progra m if one was available. Implementation of such a program is feasible, with 69% of programs surveyed having a personal computer ill their clinic and 60 % having Internet access. We conclude that most training directors believe that patient asthma education is important and effective; however; cost and time issues remain barriers to ifs implementation. Computer-based educatio nal programs delivered over the Internet are feasible, could address some o f these limitations, and are acceptable to most programs.