title: Asthma educational seminar targeting Medicaid providers.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Medicaid-insured children have high risk of asthma but are less likely to receive care in keeping with national guidelines. We targeted providers who care for a large proportion of Medicaid-insured children and presented a 2-session multimedia asthma-education seminar that emphasizes communication and teaching techniques, to enhance providers' asthma-care teaching skills.
  
  
  METHODS
  Five Medicaid-approved health maintenance organizations recruited pediatric primary-care providers. Providers were surveyed at baseline, 6 months, and 12 months to determine if they reported changes in their use of certain asthma-care communication techniques.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Fifty-three of 70 participating providers completed the program and initial survey. They reported that 50% (median) of their patients were insured by Medicaid. At baseline, providers reported they were very confident of their asthma knowledge; however, they were less confident in interactions with patients/families regarding asthma self-management skills. Providers reported use of written plans less than half of the time. The response rate was 60% at 6 months and 71% at 1 year. Twenty-eight providers completed all 3 surveys. They reported significantly more frequent use of communication and counseling techniques that involved patient/parent asthma education and self-management skills at the 6-month point, that were partly sustained at 1 year. Reported provision of written asthma plans to patients had increased significantly at 6 months, but that increase was not sustained at the 1-year point.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The seminar significantly enhanced knowledge of specific communication techniques related to asthma-teaching goals and reported use of asthma action plans to enhance self-management skills; however, these practices appear to need frequent reinforcement.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, University of Michigan Health System, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA.
authors.forename: Susan L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Bratton
authors.forename: Michael D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Cabana
authors.forename: Randall W
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.forename: Diane F
authors.initials: DF
authors.lastname: White
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Sylvia W
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Lang
authors.forename: Noreen M
authors.initials: NM
authors.lastname: Clark
mesh_terms: D001249:Asthma / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000628:therapy; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003142:Communication; D005260:Female; D006279:Health Maintenance Organizations; D006282:Health Personnel / Q000193:education*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008484:Medicaid; D008824:Michigan; D008875:Middle Aged; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D010372:Pediatrics / Q000193:education; D011320:Primary Health Care