Friday, April 4, 2025
4/4/2025
Technology-Enhanced Asthma Care in Children at Clinic and Home (TEACCCH) Study - PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Candidate: Kristin Kan, MD MPH MSc is a pediatric physician and clinical investigator focused on designing and implementing evidence-based, health-system interventions to support children with asthma. Dr. Kan’s long-term goal is to be an independent physician-investigator and leading expert in implementation science and health system interventions that improve the outcomes and quality of care for children with asthma. Research Context: Of the 5.5 million US children with pediatric asthma, over half have uncontrolled symptoms due in part to poor asthma self-management, leading to high rates of acute unscheduled care and activity limitations. Supporting guideline-based preventive asthma care, especially adherence to medications, is a critical step in reducing uncontrolled symptoms among high-risk asthma populations. There is evidence suggesting that mobile health (mHealth) technologies can be part of an effective intervention to improve adherence and symptom control. However, data from our previous mHealth asthma trial and other studies suggest that limitations in mHealth use in real-world health care are partly attributable to the lack of optimizing health system integration of the mHealth tool and the implementation strategy. Specific Aims: (1) Optimize a mHealth pediatric asthma intervention and implementation plan with caregivers and health system stakeholders through user-centered design workshops and interviews. (2) Conduct a feasibility study of an adaptive, mHealth asthma intervention and multi-stakeholder implementation plan to improve asthma symptom control and medication adherence. Research Plan: To accomplish these aims, Dr. Kan will engage caregivers of children with asthma, clinical staff, and health system administrators to refine the design of an existing mHealth asthma intervention, identify health care services to integrate the intervention in health care delivery, and design an implementation strategy. Dr. Kan will then conduct a feasibility trial with caregiver-child dyads, whom will be randomized to an adaptive mHealth asthma intervention. Findings will help prepare for a future, full-scale hybrid implementation- effectiveness trial. Career Development Plan: Dr. Kan’s training goals include: (1) acquire experience in user-centered design (UCD) methods, (2) develop expertise in clinical trial design & evaluation in health care settings, (3) increase competencies in implementation science research methods, and (4) learn statistical techniques for analyzing longitudinal data. Dr. Kan’s career development goals will be well-supported by an interdisciplinary mentorship team, a planned series of didactic learning, and implementation of her research plan. Environment: Dr. Kan has a NIH-funded core mentorship and advisory team, who are dedicated to mentoring her to independence, and is also supported by Northwestern University and Lurie Children’s Hospital, both with outstanding research infrastructures and commitments to supporting junior investigators.
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