The IMPACT: Improving Asthma Care and Treatment program is a physician-driven approach to clinical care quality improvement.  Participating physicians will evaluate their patients’ records, in collaboration with their partner physicians and clinical staff, to identify opportunities to meet or exceed guidelines for identification and treatment of patients with asthma.

Asthma is a chronic disease of increasing concern in Virginia.  According to the 2007 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), 13.2% of adults in Virginia reported having lifetime asthma, with 8.4% reporting current asthma.  Asthma in Virginia: A Comprehensive Data Report, released in 2007 by the Virginia Department of Health, indicated that 46% (16 of 35) of the state’s health districts reported adult (18+) asthma prevalence rates greater than the state’s average of 8.4%. 

New asthma guidelines were released in August 2007 as a part of the Expert Panel Report 3 of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute’s National Asthma Education and Prevention Program. While these guidelines have been welcomed as more evidence based and clinically focused, there are still few innovative strategies to implement them in frontline clinical practice and there is a need to develop innovative ways to disseminate the guidelines and facilitate sustainable implementation. A major challenge identified by the NAEPP Guideline Implementation Panel is that of implementing the several goals of care into busy practices. Based on our significant success in the initial TO GOAL program, a similar model will be used for IMPACT to optimize the American Board of Family Medicine’s (ABFM) recertification process.  

In addition to enabling physicians to prepare for pay for performance, this program hopes to facilitate model medical homes for asthma, by which primary care physicians in Virginia can positively impact the hospitalization rates for asthma while also providing more efficient and thorough care.  As defined by the American Academy of Family Physicians, a “patient-centered medical home integrates patients as active participants in their own health and well-being. Patients are cared for by a physician who leads the medical team that coordinates all aspects of preventive, acute and chronic needs of patients using the best available evidence and appropriate technology. These relationships offer patients comfort, convenience, and optimal health throughout their lifetimes.”  Despite the increasing interest in the medical home concept, there are few examples of how these innovative care environments can be developed in community settings.  The program will support the development of asthma medical homes in a way that can be replicated and spread to many primary care practices, and expanded to other chronic diseases.

For additional information about IMPACT, please contact:

The Medical Society of Virginia Foundation
2924 Emerywood Parkway, Suite 300

Richmond, Virginia 23294
Phone: 800-746-6768 or 804-377-1047