# Telehealth Education for Asthma Connecting Hospital and Home (TEACHH)

> **NIH AHRQ R03** · UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER · 2021 · $49,371

## Abstract

Asthma is the most prevalent chronic disease of childhood and a leading cause of pediatric acute care
utilization (ACU) in the US. Hospitalization is a leading risk factor for later ACU: 40% of patients will be
readmitted or go to the ED for asthma within 6 months of discharge. Guideline-based care, including education
and daily controller therapy, can reduce ACU and prevent up to 80% of asthma readmissions. However,
children from low income and racial/ethnic minority populations are the least likely to receive or use controller
medication, and the most likely to be hospitalized and readmitted. Once hospitalized, systemic barriers to
educational support during the hospital-to-home transition create missed opportunities to promote home
management among high-risk children and their families. Improving adherence and clinical outcomes for
hospitalized children requires education across settings that meaningfully engages patients and caregivers,
ideally using materials designed for low literacy populations and enabling reliable visual identification of key
medications. Facilitated access to follow-up support after discharge is also needed. The goal of this study is to
evaluate the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy of a technology-enhanced educational
intervention for caregivers and children who are hospitalized due to asthma.
 We propose a pilot RCT with 60 children (5-11 yrs) hospitalized with asthma at the Golisano Children’s
Hospital in Rochester, NY. After baseline assessment, subjects will be randomized to either: 1) the Telehealth
Education for Asthma Connecting Hospital and Home (TEACHH) intervention, which includes inpatient
child/caregiver education using pictorial materials, color/shape labels for home medications (green
star=controller, yellow/red circles=rescue), and a pair of in-home, smartphone-based telehealth visits after
discharge to reinforce effective home management; or, 2) the standard care (SC) condition, which features
standard inpatient education and routine outpatient follow-up. Patients in TEACHH will also receive all SC
measures. All caregivers will complete blinded telephone follow-up assessments at 2, 4, and 6 months after
discharge; children will be asked medication questions at baseline and 6 months. We will describe the
feasibility and acceptability of implementing the TEACHH intervention by reviewing process measure data
collected throughout the study; assess the preliminary efficacy of TEACHH in improving key clinical outcomes,
including asthma-related ACU at 7 days, 30 days, and 6 months (per electronic health record documentation)
and symptom-free days at each follow-up (reported by caregivers); and assess secondary clinical and
functional outcomes including asthma-related quality of life, missed school or work due to asthma, caregiver
and child medication knowledge, and reported adherence. Findings from this work will establish a strong
foundation for a full-scale trial, and guide future efforts ...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10370547
- **Project number:** 1R03HS028033-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER
- **Principal Investigator:** Sean Michael Frey
- **Activity code:** R03 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** AHRQ
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $49,371
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2021-09-03 → 2023-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10370547

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10370547, Telehealth Education for Asthma Connecting Hospital and Home (TEACHH) (1R03HS028033-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10370547. Licensed CC0.

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