The Boston Children’s Hospital Community Asthma Initiative (CAI) was developed to help improve the health and quality of life of children with asthma and their families. Since asthma hospitalizations and Emergency Department visits are disproportionately high for African-American and Latino children, the hospital wanted to address this important health disparity.
CAI serves children who live in Boston, are 2 to 18 years old, and have been either seen in Boston Children’s Emergency Department or hospitalized for asthma. We also accept referrals from primary care providers and asthma specialists within the hospital’s network.
Our program works with each family to understand their child’s asthma and the medications used to treat it, and to identify and reduce asthma triggers in the home and other places where the child spends time.
CAI also works with partners and coalitions to address asthma health disparities through changes in policies at the local and state levels.
New cost analyses show that health insurers and Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) can recover the cost of programs like the CAI within three years. Read more.
