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Asthma Resources for Health Care Providers

The Mass General Brigham Asthma Center is committed to sharing information about asthma, both at an introductory level and state-of-the-art developments in asthma pathobiology and management, with other healthcare providers. 

Doctor on computer with inhaler on desk

We offer educational programs for physicians (Asthma Grand Rounds); for nurses, respiratory therapists, and pharmacists (Asthma Educators Institute’s Becoming an Asthma Educator course and others); and for practical nurses, medical assistants, and personal care attendants (Learn and Teach the Asthma Basics).   

The introductory, Becoming an Asthma Educator course, appropriate for those preparing to take the National Asthma Educator’s Certification Board examination, is available online at www.asthmalearning.org.

Asthma Educators Institute

The Asthma Educators Institute at Mass General Brigham Asthma Center: One-day, in-depth symposia presenting the knowledge and skills needed to be an effective Asthma Educator and to prepare for the National Asthma Educator Certification Board (NAECB) examination.

Appropriate for Nurses, Nurse Practitioners, Physicians Assistants, Respiratory Therapists, Pharmacists, Asthma Case Managers, Medical Assistants, and Community Health Workers

Presented by Mass General Brigham Asthma Center, a collaboration among asthma specialists at:

  • Brigham and Women’s Hospital
  • Massachusetts General Hospital
  • Brigham and Women's Faulkner Hospital
  • Newton-Wellesley Hospital
  • Salem Hospital

Contact us for the upcoming dates and locations.

Course information

Our introductory program, Becoming an Asthma Educator: Learning to Teach Patients and Families About Asthma, was first offered in 2003 to high acclaim. The format combines lectures, question-and-answer sessions, case discussions, and hands-on demonstrations to maximize understanding about effective asthma education for young children, school children, and adults. We review in detail the recommendations of the Expert Panel 3 (2007) of the National Asthma Education and Prevention Program regarding staging of disease, assessment of control, and treatment.

On completion of this program, we anticipate that participants will be well prepared to take and pass the Certification Examination offered by the National Asthma Educator Certification Board.

For those who have already completed the Becoming an Asthma Educator course or seek additional learning about asthma, we offer our “Advanced Program.”

Our Becoming an Asthma Educator course is available on-line as an additional resource. This is a series of nine video modules with related, exam- type questions and answers and is available at www.asthmalearning.org.

This activity has been submitted to ANA Massachusetts for approval to award contact hours. ANA Massachusetts is accredited as an approver of continuing nursing education by the American Nurses Credentialing Center's Commission on Accreditation. For more information regarding contact hours, please call Jackie at (617) 732-7464.

Continuing Education (CRCE) hours (approximately 6 hours) for registered respiratory therapists have been approved by the American Association of Respiratory Care.

Continuing education credit hours (6 hours; 0.6 CEUs) for pharmacists have been approved by the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Pharmacy. 

Asthma Grand Rounds

Presented by Mass General Brigham via webcast

Click on the links below to watch video-streamed lectures:

January 5, 2024
Melody Duvall, MD, PhD
Type-2-Low Asthma: What Do We Know? What Do We Need to Discover?

November 3, 2023
Kari Nadeau, M.D., PhD
The Impact of Climate Change on Asthma and Allergies

September 8, 2023
Tregony Simoneau, MD
Assessing the Effect of Telemedicine and Home Monitoring on Asthma Outcomes

June 2, 2023
Adam Haber, PhD
Understanding Asthma Through Single-Cell Analysis of Airway Mucosa

March 3, 2023
Kathleen Lee-Sawar, MD, Wanda Phipatanakul, MD, MS, and Scott Weiss, MD, MS
Can Asthma Be Prevented?

January 6, 2023
Will Feldman, MD, DPhil
Inhalers, Patents, the FDA, and Asthma

March 8, 2024
Bruce Levy, M.D., M.Sc. (Hon.)
Update from the Severe Asthma Research Program (SARP IV)

Find a list of upcoming presentations

View Asthma Grand Rounds video recordings prior to January 2023

Click on the links below to watch video-streamed lectures:

November 4, 2022
Jeffrey Fredberg, PhD, and Jin-Ah Park, PhD
Epithelial Cell Unjamming in Asthma

September 9, 2022
Elliott Israel, MD
Patient-Activated, Reliever-Triggered Inhaled Corticosteroids in Asthma

June 3, 2022 
Dinah Foer, MD and David Sloane, MD, Ed.M.
Pro-Con: “Symptom-Guided ICS/LABA Use Should Replace Albuterol for Intermittent Asthma” (link coming soon)

March 4, 2022 
Diane Gold, MD, MPH and Mary Rice, MD, MPH 
Air Pollution and Asthma

January 07, 2022 
Nora Barrett, MD, Jonathan Gaffin, MD, M.M.Sc., and Elliot Israel, MD 
Biologics in Asthma: Outcomes, Limitations, and Prospects for the Future

November 5, 2021 
Rod Rahimi, MD, PhD
Defining Tissue-Resident Immune Memory in Asthma

September 10, 2021     
Margee Louisias, MD, MPH, Lakiea Wrigh-Bello, MD, MPH, Raolat Abdulai, MD, MMSc 
Racial Justice, Health Equity, and Asthma  

June 5, 2021 
Sunita Sharma, MD
Intrauterine Exposures and the Origins of Asthma

March 5, 2021 
Michelle Cloutier, MD 
New Asthma Guidelines from the NAEPP (login-required)

January 08, 2021 
Kenan Haver, MD, Benjamin Nelson, MD, and Wanda Phipatanakul, MD, MPH
Managing Severe Asthma in Children

November 13, 2020             
Nora Barrett, MD 
Epithelial Cell Reprogramming in Type 2 Airway Inflammation

September 18, 2020             
Elliot Israel, MD and Majid Shafiq, MD, MPH 
Bronchial Thermoplasty for Asthma: A Balanced View

June 5, 2020 
Nancy Lange-Vaidya, MD; Christopher H. Fanta, MD 
There is No Longer a Role for Inhaled Steroids Alone in the Treatment of Asthma

March 5, 2020 
Nora Barrett, MD, Elliot Israel, MD, and Aidan Long, MD 
Management of Severe Asthma: A Case-Based Discussion

January 10, 2020 
T. Bernard Kinane, MD 
Exercise and Asthma

November 8, 2019
Stephanie Shore, MD 
Insights from Animal Models of Obesity and Asthma

September 06, 2019               
Scott Weiss, MD, M.S. 
A Multi-omics Approach to Lung Development and the Origins of Asthma

June 07, 2019 
Neil Bhattacharyya, MD and Daniel Hamilos, MD
Current Concepts Relating to Chronic Rhinosinusitis and Asthma and Medical and Surgical Management of Rhinosinusitis and Nasal Polyposis

March 22, 2019 
Adnan Majid, MD 
Tracheobronchomalacia in the Adult

 

Location 

Brigham and Women's Hospital
Main Amphitheater
(Bornstein Family Amphitheater)
75 Francis Street
Boston, MA 02115

 
Schedule

Friday, 12:00–1:00 pm 
Asthma Grand Rounds Lecture

 

CME credit

Harvard Medical School is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing education for physicians. Harvard Medical School designates this educational activity for a maximum of 1 PRA category 1 creditTM. Physicians should only claim credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
 

Live webcasting

Asthma Grand Rounds are made available via live webcasting at your computer terminal or tablet here.

Annual Visiting Professor Lecture

Jeffrey M. Drazen 
2021-2022

Christopher Brightling, MD

Director of the Institute for Lung Health and Clinical Professor in Respiratory Medicine, Department of Respiratory Sciences at the University of Leicester, England   
Severe Asthma: Beyond T2 Inflammation - What's Next 
October 1, 2021, 12:00 pm, Virtual Zoom

Learning Center

The Asthma Center is a collaboration among asthma specialists at the Mass General Brigham hospitals in the greater Boston area, including the Harvard Medical School-affiliated teaching hospitals, Brigham and Women’s/Faulkner Hospitals and Massachusetts General Hospital, as well as Newton-Wellesley Hospital and Salem Hospital.

As part of our mission to teach other healthcare professionals the specialized skills of asthma care, in 2004 we established the Asthma Educators Institute and began offering live, one-day seminars – both introductory and advanced – to nurses, respiratory therapists, pharmacists, and others interested in learning more about asthma and related diseases.

The core introductory course that we developed is called “Becoming an Asthma Educator: Learn to Teach Patients and Families About Asthma.” It is also appropriate as a preparatory course for those interested in taking (and passing!) the National Asthma Educators Certification Board examination. We are pleased to make this course available on-line as part of our distance learning initiative. We plan to offer additional asthma-related courses in the months and years ahead.

Please contact asthmalearning@partners.org  if you’d like more information.

Asthma Center Grand Rounds’ podcast

You may subscribe to podcasts of Mass General Brigham’s Asthma Center Grand Rounds presentations on Apple Podcasts.

Archived presentations which may be available upon request include:

  • Obesity and Asthma: Curiosity or Causality by Dr. Kelan Tantisira
  • Churg-Strauss Syndrome: A Clinical Update by Dr. Michael Wechsler
  • Asthma Outcomes: How We Choose the Right Measure? by Dr. Anne Fuhlbrigge
  • Beta-Agonists: Our Response is in Our Genes by Dr. Elliot Israel
  • Pro-Con Debate: Inhaled Steroids are Safe, Even in Very Young Children
  • Pro Position: Resolved: Inhaled Corticosteroids Should Be First Line Therapy for Asthma in Children by Dr. Henry Dorkin
  • Con Position: Steroids at a Price? by Dr. Bernard Kinane
  • The Ins and Outs of T cell Trafficking in Asthma: by Dr. Andrew D. Luster

Research at the Asthma Center

The Mission Statement of the Mass General Brigham Asthma Center articulates a commitment "to develop new knowledge about asthma and its management through relevant medical research." In this spirit, members of the Mass General Brigham Asthma Center continue to build on a rich tradition of contribution to the body of medical knowledge about the mechanisms and treatment of asthma and related diseases. We are pleased to number among the members of our faculty many acknowledged world leaders engaged in this pursuit. We encourage you to peruse the wide variety of material that they have produced in recent years.

The Asthma Research Center at the Brigham & Women’s Hospital in conjunction with Harvard Medical School and the Mass General Brigham Asthma Center is dedicated to conducting research that advances the treatment and understanding of asthma.

Our research investigations in asthma are varied. Our goals at the Asthma Research Center include determining how to best use currently available drugs, examining the potential effectiveness of new drugs and therapies, and trying to increase the understanding of the mechanisms of asthma in the hope of developing new therapies.

Call us at 617-732-8201 or 1-888-99-ASTHMA to get more information or to see if you qualify.