CHEST: A Collaboration With Community HEalth Centers to Implement SmarT for Asthma

CHEST: A Collaboration With Community HEalth Centers to Implement SmarT for Asthma

Purpose: This study aims to improve asthma care by helping clinicians at community health centers prescribe a guideline-recommended treatment called SMART (Single Maintenance and Reliever Therapy).

The investigators will provide training and resources to clinicians, give feedback on prescribing patterns, and offer educational tools for patients and providers. The investigators will roll out these resources in stages across clinics. The study will measure how well the program helps clinicians prescribe SMART therapy and whether it reduces asthma exacerbations in patients.

CHEST is a type 1 hybrid stepped-wedge cluster randomized trial wherein six federally qualified community health center clinics are randomly and iteratively selected to move in a 1-way crossover from the control group to the SMART implementation group. The primary intervention is the SMART implementation bundle includes four components: (1) clinician education on SMART with ongoing practice facilitation, (2) serial clinic- and clinician-level audit and feedback on inhaler prescribing patterns, (3) workflow integration support including prescribing preferences, and (4) provision of an online patient-centered education aid with a SMART congruent asthma action plan designed for patients with lower health literacy.

The study is conceptually split into three phases: (1) the pre-implementation (control) phase focused on the development of implementation materials and baseline data gathering of prescription patterns; (2) the active implementation phase; and (3) the sustainment phase, which will focus on an assessment of sustainment and dissemination.

1. Pre-implementation phase: The pre-implementation phase is designed to be a baseline for the study. During this phase, no specific interventions will be introduced to the clinicians at participating IHN clinics. This phase will allow the CHEST study team to collect clinic-level data on current asthma care prescription practices and asthma-related outcomes.
2. Active implementation phase: At the start of the second phase, the implementation phase, the SMART implementation bundle will be introduced to the clinicians and staff at participating IHN clinics.
3. Sustainment phase: The final phase of the study is introduced after the active implementation of the SMART implementation bundle is complete at all participating IHN clinics. In the sustainment phase, formal assessments will be conducted to evaluate the sustainment of the SMART bundle. Additionally, this phase includes efforts to disseminate the findings of the study. This encompasses analyses of the reach and impact of the dissemination efforts, as well as the practical application and adoption of the findings in the broader medical community.

The study population can be viewed from the cluster (clinic), clinician, staff, or patient level.

At the cluster (clinic) level: To be eligible to participate in this study, a cluster (clinic) must meet all the following criteria:

1. Active participation in the St. Louis Integrated Health Center Network for Community Academic Partnerships.
2. Employment of at least 3 clinicians who commonly manage adult asthma (defined as managing asthma for at least one adult asthma patient, on average, on a weekly basis).
3. Data provided to Azara for data queries, and
4. Willing and able to receive all components of the SMART implementation bundle (i.e., initial educational outreach visit, ongoing practice facilitation/supervision, audit & feedback, and provision of education of patient-level education aides and SMART asthma action plans and monthly operations committee meetings).

At the clinician/clinical staff level:

To be eligible to participate in this study, a clinician/clinical staff member must meet all of the following criteria:

1. Provision of a signed and dated informed consent form.
2. Current state licenses of physician, assistant physician, nurse practitioner, or physician assistant.
3. Regularly cares for adults with asthma (which may include those trained in family medicine, internal medicine, obstetrics/gynecology, and/or specialty medicine).
4. Willing and able to integrate the SMART implementation bundle into their practice.
5. Willing and able to participate for the entire duration of the study, including the pre-implementation, active implementation, and post-implementation periods.
6. Willing to provide data on prescribing patterns and asthma patient outcomes for the duration of the study.

At the patient level:

To be eligible to participate in this study, a patient must meet all of the following criteria:

1. Age ≥12 years old
2. Diagnosis of asthma, of any severity, coded (i.e., International Classification of Diseases [ICD]-10-CM: J45**).
3. The patient has had ≥2 asthma exacerbations in the last year during which systemic corticosteroids were prescribed, and/or the encounter contains an active prescription for an inhaler that is congruent with medium-dose (or higher) maintenance inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) inhalers or low-dose (or higher) ICS-long-acting β-agonist (LABA) inhalers with concomitant reliever short-acting β-agonist inhalers.