Media Contact
Jackie Ferman
Phone -- 314.286.0375
ST. LOUIS, October 17— Your kids may have a soccer coach, or a swimming coach. Maybe even an acting coach. But what about an asthma coach?
It may sound unusual, but it’s one of many cutting-edge approaches doctors at St. Louis Children’s Hospital are using to treat and prevent child asthma, and one of many reasons we’re among the nation’s pioneers in asthma research.
Asthma is a leading cause of school absences. Ten million school days were missed in the U.S. last year due to chronic illness caused by asthma.
But while nationally, slightly more than six percent of children suffer from asthma, that number is dramatically higher in St. Louis – 15 percent, according to the Department of Health.
So what’s being done to help our children breath easier? Quite a bit, according to allergy and pulmonary medicine specialists at St. Louis Children’s Hospital.
"St. Louis Children’s Hospital is one of only two hospitals in the nation to participate in all three of the major asthma clinical trials funded by the National Institutes of Health," says Dr. Robert Strunk, MD, allergy and pulmonary medicine, St. Louis Children’s Hospital.
Those major trials include the Child Asthma Management Program (CAMP), the Childhood Asthma Research and Education Network (CARE), and the Inner City Asthma Consortium (ICAC).
In fact, more than one thousand children are currently participating in clinical trials at St. Louis Children’s Hospital, playing a pivotal role in assisting doctors across the nation improve and develop new treatment options for asthma-sufferers.
And just as the research is ongoing, so, too, is the need for active participants - particularly those with diverse ethnic backgrounds. Dr. Strunk says each study requires at least one-third minority participation. "It is very important to include patients in the minority groups to answer questions about the value of treatments specifically in these groups."
St. Louis Children’s Hospital doctors, through the Inner City Asthma Consortium, are looking for participants in two separate studies that focus specifically on the inner city.
The first targets school-aged children in the city of St. Louis.
The second begins at birth. Researchers will recruit 125 mothers who suffer from allergies or asthma themselves. The goal is to follow their babies from birth, to determine what elements and experiences in their environment cause them to develop asthma.
"This isn’t the usual asthma study," says Dr. Gordon Bloomberg, MD, allergy and pulmonary medicine. "We are interested in helping a particular group of children who suffer more than anybody else with asthma."
And Dr. Strunk stresses, without the participants; there can be no new research. "The questions being addressed in the clinical trial groups are very important in establishing appropriate treatments for asthma in children. It is important to answer these questions, and to answer them we need participants."
Each clinical trial targets a different age and degree of severity of asthma. Age groups vary from school age children to children as young as one-year-old.
The St. Louis Children’s Hospital clinical trial team has published 30 articles related to understanding the fundamental issues of childhood asthma.
To learn more about how your child can participate in a clinical trial, call Tina Oliver-Welker at 314.286.1178.
St. Louis Children’s Hospital has provided specialized care for children for more than 120 years. Children’s Hospital is affiliated with Washington University School of Medicine, ranked the second best medical school in the country by US News & World Report. In 2003, Child magazine ranked St. Louis Children’s Hospital sixth on its list of the 10 Best children’s hospitals in the country, and fourth in neonatology/neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). St. Louis Children’s Hospital also is a member of BJC HealthCare. |