Asthma: Integration of Primary Care-givers and Public Health Officials - Essay Example

"Asthma: Integration of Primary Care-givers and Public Health Officials" is a wonderful example of a paper on the respiratory system. Asthma is a condition affecting the airways and involving airflow obstruction and bronchospasm, with the commonly related symptoms including coughing, chest tightness, and difficulty in breathing.  Current statistics put Asthma as the world’s greatest challenging medical condition affecting approximately 25 million Americans (Institute of Medicine, 2012). The main causative agents are a combination of genetics and environmental factors; with the major diagnostic procedures involving a study of the symptoms patterns, spirometry, and response to therapy over time (Holgate and Douglass, 2010). Asthma has become a great challenge to medical practitioners, considering the risk that the condition possesses on the public, considering the interaction of children in schools as the adults in the workplaces. In 2009, the medical condition caused the deaths of 3,400 people including adults and children (Institute of Medicine, 2012).

            The critical conditions involved with Asthma have put both the primary health caregivers and public health officers in critical positions, considering their mandate in controlling Asthma. The primary caregivers, individuals mandated with the treatment of individual patients, do so by providing medication to particular individuals struggling with the disease; however, such an approach only limits the control mechanics to individuals, and such has no address to the environmental factors, which contribute as the greatest causative agents. Public health officers, despite having a significant role to play in addressing the asthma menace, they never have a personalized interaction with the asthma patients, and, therefore, work in the background. Some of the activities that the public health officials engage in include data collection such as the possible causative agents, areas with the highest risks, development of policies, and creating awareness among the community members in addressing the asthma menace (Holgate and Douglass, 2010). 

            From the operations of each group, it is evident that for effective treatment of asthma patients and prevention of new cases, there is the need for integration between primary care providers and public health professionals in working together towards addressing asthma. Such an approach could play a substantive role in enhancing the capacity of both the sectors in carrying out their different roles to link the other stakeholders in catalyzing a collaborative and intersectoral movement, with a single-minded aim of improving the healthcare provisions (Holgate and Douglass, 2010). Some of the major success that the collaborative work of primary care providers and public health professionals could realize in the fight against asthma includes proper and effective management of asthma and identification of symptoms (Institute of Medicine, 2012). Such an address would ensure effective treatments for early detections, an approach that would significantly help in a reduction of new asthma cases, as well as the effective treatments for the already existing cases.

            Additionally, the collaborative work of primary care providers and public health professionals has significantly improved the health care systems, most especially in communities that seem prone to asthma attacks. Such progress includes the adoption of electronic health records of patients by physicians, which has ideally, provided sufficient identities of the affected individuals, those currently under treatment, and the ones who are prone to attacks and provided sufficient preventive mechanisms. The collaboration has also involved the initiation of outreach programs, which have benefited many communities, as people have been able to take precautionary measures in preventing new cases and realizing treatments for the ongoing cases (Holgate and Douglass, 2010).