Asthma Initiatives

Whether you are a physician, nurse, respiratory therapist, or another type of health professional treating people with asthma, it is important to stay informed about asthma care, resources and support options.

Strategies for Addressing Asthma

As a health professional, asthma educator or patient advocate, learn about the Strategies to Address Asthma that you can take to provide asthma guidelines-based care and education, and find other tools to support the important work you do every day.

The National Asthma Education and Prevention Program Coordinating Committee Expert Panel Working Group released the 2020 Focused Updates to the Asthma Management Guidelines, which include updates to the following topic areas:

Intermittent Inhaled Corticosteroids
Long-Acting Muscarinic Antagonists
Indoor Allergen Mitigation
Immunotherapy in the Treatment of Allergic Asthma
Fractional Exhaled Nitric Oxide Testing
Bronchial Thermoplasty

The American Lung Association develops and provides key resources to inform asthma policy, provide asthma self-management education programs and quality improvement initiatives that are founded on evidence-based guidelines and practices. You can find a comprehensive list of these materials and efforts below.

Expanding Asthma Knowledge

Attend an Asthma Educator Institute to learn about asthma guidelines-based care and to prepare for the National Asthma Educators Certification Board (NAECB) examination while earning continuing education credits.
Attend a Spirometry Training to learn how to conduct and read spirometry readings.
Participate in the American Lung Association’s Asthma Basics online course for people with asthma and caregivers.
Access asthma morbidity and mortality data in the American Lung Association Asthma Trends Brief.
Learn about strategies to improve asthma in schools, home and work.
Understand severe asthma and access resources for patients.
Discover the American Lung Association’s Airways Clinical Research Centers, our sites, investigators and active clinical trials and major findings. Help patients learn about clinical trials and getting enrolled in a study.

Putting Evidenced-based Strategies Into Practice

Discover the Lung Association project, “Promoting Asthma Friendly Environments Through Partnerships and Collaborations,” to reduce asthma-related hospitalizations and emergency room visits using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention EXHALE strategies.
Improve healthcare outcomes at your clinic by partnering with the Lung Association to initiate an asthma quality improvement initiative, for example:
- American Lung Association’s Enhancing Asthma Care quality improvement program to reduce asthma-related emergency department visits and hospitalizations among your patients with asthma.
Watch the on-demand webinar, “Exploring the New Asthma Guidelines: a 360 degree Perspective,” to learn more about the focused update.
Become a trained facilitator in one or more of the American Lung Association’s self-management education programs - Open Airways For Schools, Kickin’ Asthma, Breathe Well, Live Well – and offer educational programming to help people with asthma learn the self-care skills that will improve their lives.

Connecting People with Asthma to Lung Health Resources

Promote the American Lung Association Asthma Basics online course to people with asthma and caregivers to help them learn to recognize and manage asthma triggers, understand the value of an asthma action plan, and recognize and respond to a breathing emergency.
Promote the American Lung Association’s Assessment: Is your asthma under control? to help people with asthma determine their asthma control.
Refer patients and their loved ones to trusted asthma videos and printed resources.
Refer patients to our Severe Asthma Resources and use the Severe Asthma Treatment Planning Tool and Treatment Decision-Making Worksheet to help start and discussion with patients and caregivers.
Consider providing a virtual home visit for patients with poorly controlled asthma using a trained provider through the American Lung Association Lung HelpLine. An asthma home visit includes an assessment of the home environment, identification of problems that could reduce exposure to asthma triggers, and education about changes that can be made or behaviors that could improve asthma.
Direct patients to in-person and online support groups and related learning opportunities:
- Promote the Better Breathers Club—support groups for adults with chronic lung disease
- Refer people with asthma to our Quit, Don’t Switch campaign to end their addiction to tobacco for good and our Freedom From Smoking cessation program to help them quit.
- Join and promote our Living with Asthma online community at Inspire for peer-to-peer support from others also living with asthma.
- Join and promote our Better Breathers Network, an online community– get direct access to education, support and connection to others also living with chronic lung disease.
- Call, email or chat with a health professional at our free call center, the Lung HelpLine.

Joining our Efforts to Improve Asthma

Asthma Care Coverage Project
Learn more about coverage of asthma guidelines-based care in state Medicaid programs.
National Asthma Public Policy Agenda
The American Lung Association has worked with a number of asthma experts and organizations to identify policy changes in six key areas that could really make a difference in the fight against asthma.
Federal Asthma Advocacy
The federal government funds much of the public health work and research about asthma in the nation. Federal policies make a difference in the asthma triggers in the air.
State and Community Asthma Advocacy
States and local policymakers play critical roles in the fight against asthma. Some have programs to help people with asthma better manage their disease, others work to reduce the triggers that worsen the disease.

Reviewed and approved by the American Lung Association Scientific and Medical Editorial Review Panel.

Page last updated: April 19, 2021

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