Asthma is a chronic disease affecting millions of Americans. Each year, billions of health care dollars are being spent, and millions of disability days can be attributed to this chronic condition. Over the past decade, there have been dramatic changes in the delivery of asthma care including: new medical technology, and improved patient education. There have also been more general changes in the structure of health care delivery, financing, and access in the U.S. which have impacted on the care of asthmatic individuals. In the face of these changes in the delivery of asthma care, there is growing evidence that asthmas hospitalizations and mortality rates are increasing. Still, there has been limited research into the effectiveness of asthma care in the U.S. population. This proposed workshop will seek to define new and significant areas of research on problems of asthma health care delivery. The workshop will consist of a two day multi-disciplinary forum that will evaluate the existing knowledge on the effectiveness of asthma care delivery, identify issues of concern, and propose a specific research strategy to identify and ameliorate barriers to optimal care. The immediate objective of the conference is to make a substantive contribution to the knowledge concerning asthma care in the U.S. We plan to prepare a report based on the proceedings of the workshop.
