NHS WALES HEALTH COLLABORATIVE
PUBLIC HEALTH WALES

The Welsh Government funds the NHS Wales Health Collaborative which sits within Public Health Wales. The Respiratory Health implementation Group (RHIG) within the NHS Wales Health Collaborative aims to standardise care of respiratory disease in both adults and children across Wales. Asthma and COPD are a priority.

Dr Julian Forton is National Clinical Lead for Child Health in RHIG. RHIG works closely with adult colleagues and the South Wales Paediatric Respiratory Network  and with colleagues in North Wales to standardize asthma care across Wales. Memebrship and meeting information can be found here

NHS WALES ASTHMAHUB 

Institute of Clinical science and Technology (ICST)
RHIG has collaborated with the Institute of Clinical Science and Technology (ICST) to develop digital solutions to improve national standardisation of care. Central to this is a teaching platform for healthcare workers in primary, secondary and tertiary care.
The platform has a specific section for training in paediatric asthma, with sections on making a diagnosis of asthma and the management of asthma in the community. Each section has multiple choice testing and certification of training.
The site can be found here. You will need to register first.
This is work in progress. If you would like to be involved please contact julian.forton@wales.nhs.uk .

NHS WALES ASTHMA APP 

RHIG is developing an Asthma App and you may already be aware of a beta version in circulation. The app is designed to have several functions and is due to be released later this year.

MONITIORING ASTHMA CONTROL AT HOME First and foremost, the App is designed to encourage self monitoring of asthma control, and is based on a regular 10 question asthma checker pushed to the patient’s phone on a monthly basis. This includes entering a monthly peak flow result. The app generates a score from the questions and data, and feeds back to the patient with broad advice.
BEST CARE FROM ALL HEALTH CARE WORKERS The App is designed to be the interface between patient and asthma nurse/doctor for all interactions whether they be the annual asthma review, or a visit with symptoms to the GP, ER or hospital ward. The App guides the patient, parent and health care worker through best practise, provides a digital Personal Asthma Action Plan, can be updated for changes in clinical care, and ensures that all elements of the Asthma Care Bundle are reviewed. The interaction and what was done is logged. 
THE HEALTH OF THE NATION The App will provide nationwide epidemiological data on children with asthma in the community through the information given in the monthly asthma checker and at times of interaction with health care workers.

The App also provides a library of educational videos. Here are a few examples. If you want to get involved email julian.forton@wales.nhs.uk . We would really like representation from all over Wales.

Reliever and preventer therapy
secondary school
managing your child’s asthma
Diagnosis of asthma in children
cold weather
Good asthma care
Triggers
asthma symptoms

 

ALL WALES DOCUMEMNTS

ALL WALES PERSONAL ASTHMA ACTION PLAN FOR ASTHMA AND PRESCHOOL WHEEZE
Download Welsh here.
Download English here or  [high resolution with bleed and crop marks for professional printing ]. 

ALL WALES GUIDELINE FOR THE ACUTE MANAGEMENT OF ASTHMA AND WHEEZE IN CHILDREN AGED > 2 YEARS
Download here