Johnathan Laird
THIS blog was conceived when I read about the key findings in the Finnish asthma strategy between 1994 and 2004. The results from the Finnish study were very interesting. Not only in Finland did they review their current multidisciplinary practice through various funded educational interventions they also brought community pharmacy into the fold.
So, the broad goal of the asthma strategy in Finland was to reduce the overall burden of asthma on individuals and also on society. They went about achieving this in the following ways
- Early diagnosis and active treatment
- Guided self management as the primary form of treatment
- Reduction in environmental trigger factors i.e. smoking
- Implementation of timely, targeted patient education
- Increasing knowledge of known asthmatic groups
- Promotion and support for scientific research into asthma
You can read full details of the study here if you have not already done so.
I’m not sure what you thought after reading it, but for me it was a little bit like reading the opposite findings of the National Review of Asthma Deaths. There was improvement, but they reckoned the improvement would not have been as significant without the strategy. Of course, it is very hard to say to what extent community pharmacy contributed here but contribute in a positive way they did.
Johnathan Laird is a community pharmacist independent prescriber with a special interest in asthma. He is based in based in Aberdeen.
Follow Johnathan @JohnathanLaird