A Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial to Improve Asthma Care for Children Through Provider Education and Health Systems Change: A Description of the Pediatric Asthma Care Patient Outcome Research Team (PAC-PORT II) Study Design

Abstract

For more than a decade, there has been an effort to reduce unintended variations in care and improve clinical outcomes through the widespread development and dissemination of clinical practice guidelines yet a substantial body of literature suggests that few guidelines have been fully adopted into clinical practice. This manuscript describes the design of a group randomized controlled clinical trial to test two alternative strategies for promoting the adoption of asthma clinical guidelines: a peer-leader mediated physician behavior change intervention, and an intervention which applies the chronic disease model to structuring asthma care, including an asthma nurse educator compared to usual care. It is anticipated that the findings from this study will assist health care organizations in designing practical evidence-based strategies to improve the care of persons with asthma.