Physician Asthma Care Education Plus Cultural Competency Training (PACE Plus)

Location:
1415 Washington Heights
48109 Ann Arbor , MI
Michigan

Program Type:

University

Contact:

Lara Thomas
(877) 312-3312
The Center for Managing Chronic Disease is undertaking a study comparing two educational interventions designed specifically for physicians. The PACE Plus (Physician Asthma Care Education Plus Cultural Competency Training) study provides an advanced "state of the art" asthma management program for physicians and assesses its effect on their Latino and African American pediatric asthma patients and families.

Massive resources are expended every year training physicians to be more aware of cultural differences, also known as cultural competence training.  Such training is a focus of continuing medical education nationwide and is part of the curriculum of virtually every medical school in America.  However, there is no rigorous study assessing whether cultural competency training for physicians results in better health outcomes for their patients.

The Center for Managing Chronic Disease is undertaking a study comparing two educational interventions designed specifically for physicians. The Physician Asthma Care Education Plus Cultural Competency Training (PACE Plus) study provides an advanced "state of the art" asthma management program for physicians and assesses its effect on their Latino and African American pediatric asthma patients and families.

The study is a randomized clinical trial involving 90 physicians total from Atlanta and the Bronx and 1192 of their African American and Latino/Hispanic pediatric patients with asthma. Two interventions will be studied: the Physician Asthma Care Education (PACE) program for enhancing physician’s clinical therapeutics, communication, and counseling skills; and PACE Plus, which is a version of the PACE program designed to enhance the cultural competence of the clinician.  The study will investigate whether PACE Plus produces better outcomes for minority patients and their parents as compared to PACE. We will collect data from the 90 physicians and the parents of the 1192 children in the study.

This study is funded by a grant from the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute. For more information about this project, please contact Lara Thomas at ljthomas@umich.edu or through our toll-free number 877-312-3312.