P3.F113: The Use of the Pediatric Asthma Surveillance System (PASS) to Drive Community Asthma Intervention within Dallas County

Background: Asthma is a common pediatric health condition with many contributing factors ranging from socioeconomic status to medication use patterns. Asthma rescue medications provide rapid relief, reduce emergency department (ED) visits, and mitigate complications, including death. Dallas County, Texas, has a high rate of pediatric asthma. The Dallas Independent School District (DISD) is only able to treat students with prescription asthma medications with previous written authorization. New Texas legislation that allows trained personnel to administer rescue asthma medications to those in respiratory distress without a previous prescription has yet to be adopted within Dallas ISD.

Advocacy within Dallas ISD for this new legislation is needed to improve pediatric health. Large data sets can predict patterns and therefore provide supporting evidence for advocacy work. The Pediatric Asthma Surveillance System (PASS), created in partnership with the Dallas County Health and Human Services (DCHHS) and the Parkland Center for Clinical Innovation (PCCI), is a tool that integrates health and social data to provide zip code specific pediatric asthma risk assessments.

Project Description: The PASS database was used to identify zip codes and associated schools, with increased vulnerability to poor pediatric asthma outcomes based on several variables, including an insufficient number of prescribed reliever medications. Based on this data, we partnered with Asthma 411, an organization focused on ensuring access to rescue medications at schools, with the plan to expand this program within Dallas County.

Discussion: The PASS database was utilized to advocate for asthma interventions within the pediatric community. High risk zip codes were identified to drive focused interventions in areas with the highest need. This data has been shared with the Asthma 411 team and providers within the community. We are currently working to assemble a coalition of stakeholders within Dallas County where the PASS data will be presented to advocate for school-based asthma initiatives throughout Dallas ISD. Together with Asthma 411, we have revised a Continuing Nursing Education (CNE) curriculum to train school nurses to administer rescue medications within schools, with plans to develop a Continuing Medical Education (CME) curriculum to educate community providers about this school-based program.

Conclusion: We successfully utilized a large database to engage stakeholders and advocate for a specific school-based initiative. We collaborated with other providers, schools, organizations, and the greater community with the goal of implementing this program within a high-need community. By educating the community on asthma disparities in Dallas using the PASS database, our goal will be to garner support to implement rescue medication use in Dallas ISD schools to improve pediatric asthma outcomes.