Candace Cahoon, the respiratory care manager for the Pediatric Asthma Program, presented in July at the National Association of Asthma Educators (AAE) annual conference in Charlotte, North Carolina. The AAE is dedicated to providing quality education to a multidisciplinary group of asthma educators, and members include respiratory therapists, nurses, pharmacists, physicians, social workers, nurse practitioners and others. Cahoon’s presentation is one way the Pediatric Asthma Program at Maynard Children’s Hospital strives to share its research, lessons learned and processes for establishing a national model for a pediatric asthma program in the United States.
Cahoon has worked with ECU Health for 10 years, and during that time she has continued her education from a bachelor’s degree in sociology and an associate’s degree in respiratory therapy, to a master’s in health education and several certifications.
The Pediatric Asthma Program, which has grown from serving two counties in 1995 to 29 counties today, aims to reduce emergency department and inpatient admissions for children with asthma, decrease school absenteeism and increase the quality of life for children with asthma in eastern North Carolina. It does this by offering asthma testing, asthma education, tools to manage asthma, access to community resources and medication assistance. Their work with eastern North Carolina public schools has been a particularly effective way to reach children in rural North Carolina communities.
The poster Cahoon presented was the collaborative work of the Pediatric Asthma Program’s entire team, and the goal was to educate others on how to establish and support a pediatric asthma program. “We’re one of the best programs in the nation,” Cahoon said. “We are ahead of the game in terms of what we address for our patients with asthma. I go to conferences and say, ‘we know this; we do this,’ so we are well-known in the state and nationally.” Sue Anne Pilgreen, the manager of the Pediatric Asthma Program, said Cahoon is the “teacher” of their team. “She is a lifelong learner,” she said. “While the content development was a team effort, Candace pulled it all together, submitted the abstract and ultimately showcased our great work.”
Cahoon shared that the Pediatric Asthma Program is now establishing its own professional conference: Pediatric Asthma Management: Providing Holistic Care to Rural Communities. The conference is scheduled for February 28, 2025 and will be held at the Eastern Area Health Education Center, with virtual and in-person capability. Cahoon leads the committee responsible for making the conference a reality. “We want to show how we are touching every single aspect of an asthmatic patient’s life,” Cahoon said. “We have worked to expand and grow our program over the past few years, and we’ve had countless people ask us how we ‘found’ our success, especially in such a rural area,” Pilgreen added. In answer to that, the conference will address key components involved in implementing a comprehensive asthma program, while also discussing the clinical components of how the asthma team treats patients with asthma and helps them transition to home. “We’ll have a case study that goes through the hospital or clinic and has a breakdown of testing, education, home visits and environmental assessments for the patients,” Cahoon shared. The team will also talk about Single Maintenance and Reliever Therapy (SMART) as a new treatment option for patients with asthma that combines in a single inhaler both a corticosteroid and a long-acting beta-agonist so it can be used as a daily maintenance and as-needed relief of asthma symptoms. “The overarching objective for the conference is to help participants to utilize clinical knowledge, skills and expertise to provide holistic pediatric asthma care in the community,” Pilgreen said. “We know this starts in multiple places, including the hospital bedside, schools, and primary care provider offices.”
Ultimately, attending conferences, as well as establishing a conference of their own, highlights and shares the innovative work of the Pediatric Asthma Program at Maynard Children’s Hospital. “It shows that we’re here and we can do this together,” Cahoon said. “We are more than willing to show how over the last 20 years we have put this program in place.” Pilgreen agreed: “The design of our program is unique. Having the opportunity to present our program model and outcomes at a national conference not only elevates our work, but it also gives others the tools to replicate our model in their area. Our goal is to increase the quality of life for children with asthma, regardless of where they live.”