Webinar: Advancing Health Equity through Better Asthma Care

Patients deserve evidence-based, high-value health care rooted in the most rigorous scientific methods. However, research practices that generate our current evidence base have historically excluded a number of communities and patient perspectives. This incomplete and sometimes biased evidence base has limited effectiveness and applicability for diverse populations, and risks widening racial, ethnic, and other inequities. A foundational step in addressing health inequities, including asthma-related health inequities, is strengthening the evidence base so it includes diverse patients and their perspectives.

Asthma is the most common childhood disease but disproportionately affects communities and children of color. To address asthma inequities, it is fundamental that research practices produce representative evidence based on the real-world experiences of the most affected communities, and that reporting of this evidence is transparent.

Given the shortcomings in our current evidence base, and given the persisting inequities among communities of color, scientists have adopted new approaches to increase diversity and include patient perspectives. The federal government created the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) to address these limitations. PCORI funds research projects that conduct patient-centered outcomes research (PCOR), an approach that meaningfully involves patient voices in research and prioritizes diverse communities and subpopulations. Such an approach has great potential to advance health equity.

This webinar presents our report, Advancing Health Equity through Better Evidence for Asthma Care: Translating Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Learnings into Equity-Focused where we translate PCORI’s asthma research portfolio into equity-focused policy recommendations. This webinar will:

• Explain patient-centered outcomes research and its importance to advancing health equity​
• Provide a quick overview of asthma inequities disproportionately affecting communities of color and discuss the importance of stratifying outcomes
• Provide a description of the six PCOR asthma studies, their findings, and their limitations
• Present our equity-focused policy recommendations
• Discuss sustainable financing methods for nonclinical asthma services