Barriers to access a hot topic at AllerGen workshop

AllerGen's Public Health, Ethics, Policy and Society programme of research recently held a workshop dedicated to the creation of a research agenda focused on positively impacting children with asthma.

The workshop, Improving drug benefits for children with asthma: Building a research agenda, held at the Estates of Sunnybrook in Toronto, Ontario, was attended by 30 AllerGen investigators and partners, representing the insurance, pharmaceutical and marketing industries, hospitals, government agencies, universities, and patient advocacy and professional associations.

Participants, drawn from across sectors and disciplines, identified social, economic and behavioural barriers to access and care facing asthmatic children and their families that can inform the development of a future research programme, leading to strategies to improve children's access to optimal asthma management and potential partners for this multidisciplinary research initiative.

The day-long event provided the basis on which Principal Investigator Dr. Wendy Ungar and her team can move forward in planning a research programme to address the challenges children and their families face in achieving optimal asthma management.

Workshop topics included:

key factors that impact a child's access to medication-drug plans, demographics, socioeconomic status, resources available to families and the parental/family belief system;
identifying the major challenges that, if addressed, would go the furthest in improving a child's access to medications, tools and services that would help him achieve optimal control of his disease;
improving asthma management;
an interactive panel examining the diverse provincial approaches to drug programs for children and strategies to improve a child's access and care.