Partnership to help asthma patients

Researchers from the two organisations received a Linkage Project Grant from the Australian Research Council to develop different models of health professional education to train people with asthma.

The project, "Improving asthma device use: innovative models for inter-professional practice", will aim to improve patient quality of life, prevent asthma attacks that require hospitalisation and reduce time away from work or school.

The project will also aim to develop models to promote an inter-disciplinary approach to asthma management in the community and ultimately to enhance the management of people with other conditions such as chronic airway limitations.

NPS chief executive, Lynn Weekes, said the grant was awarded in recognition of preliminary research conducted by the principal investigator, Dr Sinthia Bosnic-Anticevich, and colleagues at the University of Sydney, which showed the benefits of such health professional education.

"It also highlights the important contribution of NPS in developing evidence-based, multifaceted educational strategies that lead to improvements in the use of medicines, clinical practice and patient outcomes," Ms Weekes said.

The project will run for two years, bringing together a skilled multi-disciplinary team of experts to engage health professionals in clinical practice improvement.

Experts from pharmacy, psychology and behaviour change, education, asthma management, medicine, design and implementation of health professional training will work together on the project.