Good Asthma Care on a Desert Island (PDF) a six-page, easy-to-use summary of the EPR-3 guidelines developed in cooperation with the Washington Asthma Initiative.
Tools for Best-Practice Care
- Asthma Action Plan (PDF), developed in partnership with the patient, is recommended for all people with asthma.
- Interactive Asthma Action Plan
- The Asthma Control Test (ACT)–health care providers should regularly monitor patients' asthma control. The ACT gives an accurate measure of asthma control. Available in both adult English (PDF) Spanish (PDF) and pediatric English (PDF) Spanish (PDF) versions.
Spirometry
- Spirometry is the only objective measure of lung function generally available in primary care. Peak flow is no longer recommended to diagnose or assess severity for asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). A third of patients with mild or severe asthma are identified by spirometry, and would otherwise be missed by history alone.
- Spirometry allows you to evaluate for:
- The presence of restrictive or obstructive defects in lung function.
- The severity of obstructive defects in lung function.
- Change in lung function over time.
- For more information visit Spirometry 360.
Additional Resources
- The Physician Asthma Care Education (PACE) and Nurse Asthma Care Education (NACE) trainings are shown to improve quality of care and health outcomes.
- The Asthma section of Medline Plus (en Español ), a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health, is an excellent source of information on asthma.
- National Jewish Health - Professional Education Resources
- American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology