Hospitals are following multiple guidelines at once, says a respiratory epidemiologist who's working to simplify things.
Almost two dozen children died from asthma in New South Wales between 2004 and 2013, despite most having risk factors that could have been detected.
But concerningly, a recent survey of 15 local health districts in the state found that while almost all hospitals used evidence-based clinical practice guidelines for asthma management, often multiple different guidelines were being used, even in the same hospital.
Not only was this confusing for doctors and nurses, but parents also reported having several different documents detailing their child’s asthma care.
This episode, Felicity Nelson interviews Dr Nusrat Homaira, a respiratory epidemiologist at the University of NSW, about her research into streamlining paediatric asthma management to save lives.
You can listen and subscribe to the show by searching for “The Tea Room Medical Republic” in your favourite podcast player.
