HSI Pediatric Asthma Initiative & ZAP Asthma Atlanta Rosa Arriaga, Ph.D. Director Pediatric Research

Overview  Review the goals of HSI  Review the goals of Zap Asthma Atlanta  Share current Asthma Simulation Game

Health Systems Institute Joint Initiative between GT and Emory Focuses on healthcare delivery research Emphasize chronic care in traditional and non- traditional spaces home, the cell phone, the web

Why focus on Asthma  Asthma: a chronic inflammatory disorder of the lungs and airways that causes recurrent episodes of wheezing, breathlessness, chest tightness, and coughing  Prevalence  10% or children age 10 and younger  10-15% of middle school and high school children  8% of adults (more common in women than men)  Cost  $46 million in 2005  Asthma is the most common chronic disease of childhood and is the number one cause of hospitalization and absenteeism

Treatment practices  Regular General Practitioner (GP) check up  Appropriate use of prophylactic medication  Use of peak flow meters  *Asthma action plans We can help improve these practices!

HSI Pediatric Research  Philosophy: Technology is a means to scale human efforts  Over time, over space  Important role for mobile phones, social media, web  Local: Develop technologies to automate current treatment, monitoring and management practices  Thereby improving patient outcomes  Taking an ecological approach to technology development

ECOLOGICAL Approach

Zap Asthma Atlanta  16 member public, private partnership created to reduce preventable morbidity and mortality from asthma for children living in Atlanta's “Empowerment Zone”  Utilizes an "action research/participatory research model,"  known asthma triggers in the home environment of study participants are identified and ameliorated,  Utilizes the skills of trained community health workers,  assist families in sustaining the environmental interventions.

Asthma in context  Atlanta is the “asthma capitol” of the US  Metro Atlanta 1:4  Asthma occurs in African-American children at three times the national rate.  African Americans are four times more likely to die from asthma than whites

Education is paramount!

Zap Simulation Game  “Game” to help individuals learn about how to manage and monitor asthma 

Zap Challenge  Improve the game….