Asthma Management
Website Announced by NHLBI
Physicians who
want to provide the most up-to-date diagnostic and treatment methods
for their asthma patients can now find, on one online site, virtually
all the scientific literature on chronic asthma that has ever been
published. The new web site is the Asthma Management Model System
(AMMS), launched today by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
(NHLBI) of the National Institues of Health in recognition of World
Asthma Day.
The AMMS was
designed by the NHLBI's National Asthma Education and Prevention
Program (NAEPP) to help improve the diagnosis and treatment of asthma.
It is an interactive web-based system that provides users with the
ability to quickly formulate research questions and access key databases,
retrieve the latest treatment guidelines and published literature,
obtain continuing education credits, and browse and download materials.
One of the striking features of the AMMS is its ability to bring
together several high-tech functions within one integrated system
for those clinicians who are on the cutting edge of asthma management.
Said NHLBI
Director Dr. Claude Lenfant, "With its theme of ‘Help Our Children
Breathe,' World Asthma Day is an occasion on which we are communicating
to people of all nations that asthma is a worldwide burden. The
Asthma Management Model System provides an important tool to help
health care professionals, researchers, and public health planners
at home and abroad reduce this burden."
The AMMS,
which can be accessed through the NHLBI home page at http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov,
provides a unique tool for health professionals who wish to analyze
problems relating to long-term asthma management. After clicking
on the research mode, the user can select search terms, and the
system automatically formulates a question that asks what effect
a selected treatment will have on a selected outcome in asthma patients
for whom selected conditions or factors are known. The system then
retrieves the relevant information from such major scientific databases
as MEDLINE, CRISP, and CORDIS, and documents from Federal government
agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and
the Food and Drug Administration.
The AMMS also
offers a professional education mode that provides immediate access
to the latest asthma clinical guidelines from the NAEPP and the
Global Initiative for Asthma, continuing medical education programs
for physicians, other professional and patient education materials,
and tools for physicians to teach other health professionals and
patients about asthma.
Another major
feature of the AMMS is a site that allows users to participate in
online forums and discussions. This includes an Asthma Coalition
Exchange, which is designed to foster information sharing and networking
among community-based asthma coalitions throughout the country.
The exchange is part of a larger NAEPP program to develop partnerships
with local asthma coalitions to help implement change in the way
asthma is managed at the community level.
It is intended
that the AMMS will eventually connect to online forums and discussion
groups for asthma patients. Visitors will also be able to register
for regular updates on new features that are added to the site.
The NAEPP
was created in 1989 to reduce death and disability from asthma through
professional, patient, and public education. It has developed the
AMMS as an educational resource for health care professionals that
should result in improvements in the way asthma is managed. Plans
to expand patient and public education components are in development.
For more information,
visit the Asthma
Management Website.
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