Teach the Teacher - Difficult to Manage Asthma

2015
Rome

A two tier pilot programme

    –Tier 1: 16 participants from eight countries

    –Tier 2: circa 230 multi professional participants in seven in-country programmes 

  • Clinical content: evidence based guidance for a structured review for difficult to manage asthma in primary care.  
  • IPCRG Expert faculty
  • Funded / in collaboration with UBIOPRED and EFA
  • Evaluation:
    • Importance of local needs assessment
    • Local adaptation
    • Importance of fidelity
  • Publication: https://www.joghr.org/article/11925

Summary

Primary care clinicians across Europe learn about the results of U-BIOPRED. The results of U-BIOPRED are reaching primary care clinicians through workshops on difficult to manage asthma.

In January 2015, the U-BIOPRED consortium members IPCRG and EFA brought together clinical colleagues from eight EU countries for a two day ‘Teach the Teacher: Difficult to Manage Asthma' workshop in Rome. The aim was to build their ability to teach other clinical colleagues the key messages around severe asthma. This included how to use and adapt existing IPCRG resources for local use. The expert speakers coached attendees to design and plan national educational programmes for clinicians. These local programmes will be delivered in 2015, with support and funding from UBIOPRED and IPCRG.

The programmes are based on the IPCRG’s asthma messages, including the SIMPLES structured asthma review. These have been very well received by European primary care, with great interest shown by the over 400 people who attended the primary care session at ERS Congress 2013.

It is important that the local programmes use an adapted version of the original difficult to manage asthma workshop by:

  • involving primary care, patients and secondary care, 
  • using the evidence-based IPCRG resources, 
  • adding in relevant new findings from sources, such as UBIOPRED on severe asthma, 
  • adapting them for the local situation, for example, whether there is a referral system or not, and the reimbursement systems,
  • and then teaching and testing them in a workshop setting.

The key messages from U-BIOPRED to date were included, recognising that more findings and messages would be released this year. The significance that U-BIOPRED findings could have for asthma diagnosis, treatment and management in future was brought out.

The aim of the Teach the Teacher programme is to develop a core group of clinicians who are capable of designing and delivering locally relevant, evidence-based education for primary care audiences. The course looked at how adults learn and how to evaluate education, as well as content about asthma, difficult to manage asthma and severe asthma. 

At the end of the two-day programme, pairs of clinicians who had taken part committed to designing and organising a meeting in their own country including the same content, adapted for their local healthcare system. U-BIOPRED and IPCRG will give each pair of ‘teachers’ the resources to run their local programme. 

The workshop was rated highly by all participants, with overall scores of 4 or 5 (where 5 was ‘excellent’).

 

The Dutch group, CAHAG, has published the outcome of its national programme, based on this meeting:

Honkoop PJ, Pinnock H, Kievits-Smeets RMM, Sterk PJ, Dekhuijzen PNR, in ’t Veen JCCM. Adaptation of a difficult-to-manage asthma programme for implementation in the Dutch context: a modified e-Delphi. npj Prim Care Respir Med [Internet]. 2017;27(May 2016):16086. Available from: http://www.nature.com/articles/npjpcrm201686

Teach the Teacher Italy