St. Louis Regional Asthma Consortium

The mission of the Asthma Consortium is to close the gap between people affected by asthma and the knowledge and services that will help them. The Consortium advocates for improved and more responsive health care for those with asthma and assures that high-quality information is available to them. The Asthma Consortium tries to reduce barriers to care in health systems and the community and works to identify and implement best practices for asthma management. Main programs include the Community Asthma Program (CAP), which provides NAEPP-based training for primary cap physicians and their staff and teaches improved communication strategies to ensure that patients can understand and follow prescribed therapies. Another main program focuses on our Asthma Friendly Pharmacies. Asthma Friendly pharmacists, who receive additional training in identifying potential medication-related problems, alert primary care physicians when an individual''s medical profile indicates an overuse of quick-relief medications and non-adherence to long-term controller medications. A third Asthma Consortium initiative is Asthma 411, which is active in four area school districts, providing asthma training for school nurses and placing a medical consultant, who issues appropriate standing orders, in the school districts. This is helping schools keep children with asthma in the classroom.