Eliminate asthma triggers at the source to create healthier homes



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Children's National is one of five recipients sharing $ 10 million in funding for the Fannie Mae Sustainable Communities Innovation Challenge: Affordable and Healthy Housing, a national competition to identify innovative ideas to help children and families live in safer homes. Fannie Mae announced the funding on May 21, 2019.

Children's funds will support a pilot program to use smart phones to enable virtual home visits, drawing on the skills of pediatric asthma specialists, health educators and sanitation specialists community housing that will video-confer home-based families to identify home-related asthma triggers.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in 12 (6 million) children and one teenager have asthma, and one in six children with asthma goes to the emergency department every year. In Washington, DC, unhealthy housing can play an inordinate role in triggering asthma exacerbations. Asthma-related hospital visits are 12 times more common in the city's poorer neighborhoods than in rich postcodes.

Working with community partners Child teachers aim to eliminate asthma triggers at the source, improve children's well-being and create healthier homes.

Currently, during home visits, staff are looking for holes under kitchen sinks and interstices in walls or floors where pests and pests could enter, as well as leaks in which mildew can bloom. These systematic visits give detailed notes on the best direct resources to address these housing problems. However, face-to-face visits require a lot of work and require delicate diplomacy to open the doors first and then report potential asthma triggers without making the judgment.

The beauty of our innovation lies in the fact that residents can show us these same problematic locations using their smartphones, which makes it easier to target resources for this household. It's a win for children's families because eliminating asthma triggers at home means our kids will miss fewer days of school, thus improving their lives. and their health in general. "

Ankoor Y. Shah, MD, MBA, MPH, Medical Director of the Children's IMPACT DC Asthma Treatment Clinic

The collaborative project for children includes a number of partners, including:

  • BreatheDC, a non-profit organization that fights all forms of lung disease
  • Local Initiatives Support Coalition of DC, the country's largest community development support organization
  • The Institute of Public Health Innovation, a non-profit organization whose work improves the living conditions, work and leisure of people.
  • Yachad, which preserves affordable housing
  • IMPACT DC, award-winning children's pediatric asthma program
  • Child Health Advocacy Institute, based at Children's National
  • Goldberg Community Pediatric Health Center, Primary Care Practices for Children and
  • Children's telemedicine, which provides remote health care, using technology.

Dr. Shah said the project would begin in July 2019 with the virtual home visits pilot project starting in early 2020. This proof of concept model could, hopefully, be replicated in other cities across the country. .

Source:

National Children's Health System

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