Public Health Infrastructure and Surveillance - National Asthma Public Policy Agenda

Supporting Strategies:

• Statewide asthma programs and partners should develop a strategic plan to document the problem, implement strategies and assess progress.
• Statewide asthma programs should follow best practices outlined in CDC’s EXHALE Technical Package on implementing a comprehensive asthma program, including access to guidelines-based asthma care, expanded asthma self-management education in clinical and home visits, and environmental policies and practices to reduce exposure to asthma triggers. 
• Statewide asthma programs should partner with multiple sectors, including health systems, housing, workplaces, schools and childcare facilities, when implementing comprehensive asthma programs.
• Statewide asthma programs should implement the activities outlined in CDC’s EXHALE Guide for Public Health Professionals.
• Statewide asthma programs should identify and ensure they address asthma in underserved and disproportionately affected populations in their strategic plan and activities.

Supporting Strategies:

• Asthma surveillance systems should include the collection of asthma data at both the national and the state level.

• The asthma surveillance system should collect or coordinate with other agencies/organizations to obtain data and report measures that are nationally consistent by patients' age, sex, race, ethnicity, occupation, and socio-economic status.
• The asthma surveillance system should track asthma prevalence, morbidity and mortality, and coordinate with other data gathering efforts.
• The asthma surveillance system should explore obtaining data from non-traditional sources, including federally qualified health centers (FQHC), government (Medicaid or Children’s Health Insurance Program [CHIP]), private insurance, hospitals, and schools. 

Supporting Strategies:

• Federal, state and local governments should consider the current and future impacts of natural disasters and climate change on air quality in their natural disaster response plans and climate resilience plans. 
• Federal, state and local governments should include air quality experts and asthma control programs in their stakeholder engagement efforts when planning and implementing natural disaster response plans and climate resilience plans.
• Federal, state and local governments should ensure that natural disaster response plans and climate resilience plans address populations with chronic lung conditions that may be disproportionately impacted by poor air quality.