Asthma Center

The Asthma Center is the region’s leader in pediatric asthma research and its premier resource for evidence-based asthma programs. We are dedicated to improving the health and well-being of children and families through community-based collaborative research and programs, and we work to encourage, facilitate, and deliver a mechanism for program dissemination and outcomes assessment of clinical and translational research conducted by investigators within community settings, including schools, homes, community organizations, hospitals and ambulatory practice settings. The Asthma Center is committed to the training of investigators and community stakeholders in community-based research.

In 2020, the Asthma Center continued to adhere to its vision of developing and disseminating innovative approaches to improving the health and well-being of children, families, and communities. Using a public health approach, the Asthma Center continued to work to reduce health disparities and their determinants by conducting multifaceted, interdisciplinary collaborative research on critical contemporary health issues facing children with asthma, and to establish optimal models of health management and best practices.

As a reflection of this, the Asthma Center secured its third and final year of Cigna Foundation funding to continue its pilot feasibility study of its innovative digital Easy Breathing© program. Traditionally a paper-based program, Easy Breathing is an evidence-based asthma management program that translates national asthma guidelines into a usable format for pediatricians and family medicine practitioners. It is now more accessible to clinicians thanks to a new, tablet-based format currently being tested among pediatricians in one federally qualified health center (FQHC). Preliminary data from this pilot study indicates that the digital version is feasible, acceptable, and appropriate among all FQHC staff. The next phase of the pilot will be extended to school nurses, who will receive digital copies of a student’s guideline-adherent asthma treatment plan. We will digitize the Easy Breathing© for Schools program, which will allow for seamless, efficient asthma management communication between pediatricians and school nurses practicing in the North Hartford Promise Zone.

The Asthma Center’s Easy Breathing for Schools program is a multipronged asthma education toolkit that reduces asthma-related school absenteeism, and improves both asthma control and inhaler technique. In 2020, the Asthma Center was awarded a $35,000 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) grant to implement Easy Breathing for Schools in the Hartford area, where asthma disproportionately affects lowincome African-American and Latino children. A designated bilingual Certified Asthma Educator (AE-C) from the Asthma Center (Sigrid Almeida) will provide training to school nurses during the academic year and facilitate screening, survey administration, and data collection. In a stepped-wedge design, investigators in the Asthma Center will evaluate the implementation of this new, asthma-educator led program with the goal of increased adoption across Hartford Public Schools.

Lastly, we are proud to announce that the founder of the Asthma Center, Dr. Michelle Cloutier, professor emeritus, chaired the long-awaited and focused update to the 2007 National Asthma Education and Prevention Program’s asthma guidelines. In January 2021, the Expert Panel Review (EPR-4) released the update, which focused on six priority areas. There are significant changes to asthma management, and staff and investigators in the Asthma Center are currently working with the primary care community to implement these changes and create the next phase of the Easy Breathing program.

PUBLICATIONS

Simoneau T, Langton CR, Kuo CL, Marrero J, Gherlone N, Cloutier MM, and Hollenbach JP. A school nurseled asthma program reduces absences: evaluation of Easy Breathing for Schools. Acad Pediatr. 2020 JanFeb;20(1):73-80.

Langton CR, Hollenbach JP, Simoneau T, Cloutier MM. Asthma management in school: parents’ and school personnel perspectives. J Asthma. 2020 Mar;57(3):295-305.

Cicutto L, Gleason M, Haas-Howard C, White M, Hollenbach JP, Williams S, McGinn M, Villarreal M, Mitchell H, Cloutier MM, Vinick C, Langton C, Shocks DJ, Stempel DA, Szefler SJ. Building Bridges for Asthma Care Program: a school-centered program connecting schools, families and community health care providers. J Sch Nurs. 2020 Jun;36(3):168-180.

Gherlone ND, Schifano ED, Blodgett A, Hollenbach JP, Trapp C, Cloutier MM. Support from key individuals prolongs breastfeeding duration in a low-income, predominantly Latina sample. AMSRJ. 2020;7(1).

Flores G, Hollenbach JP, Hogan AH. To eliminate racial and ethnic disparities in child health care, more needs to be addressed than just social determinants. Lancet Respir Med. 2019 Oct;7(10):842-843.

Gherlone N, Hill DR, Feinn R, Hollenbach JP. Hair cortisol concentrations among urban and rural-dwelling mother-child dyads, La Romana, Dominican Republic. Stress. 2020 Nov.

STAFF

Jessica Hollenbach, PhD, Director, Asthma Center Michelle M. Cloutier, MD, Professor Emeritus Christine Langton, PhD, Research Associate Sigrid Almeida, BS, Research Assistant Brian Lesmes, BS, Administrative Assistant