Integrating Environmental Management of Asthma into Pediatric Health Care: What Worked and What Still Needs Improvement?

The National Environmental Education Foundation (NEEF) launched an initiative in 2005 to integrate environmental management of asthma into pediatric health care. This study, a follow-up to a 2013 study, evaluated the program's impact and assessed training results by 5 new faculty champions. We surveyed attendees at training sessions to measure knowledge and the likelihood of asking about and managing environmental triggers of asthma.

Honey pacifier use among an indigent pediatric population.

Background: Use of honey pacifiers by infants presenting to a pediatric clinic at a county hospital in Houston, Texas, was observed by several of our staff members. Although we could not find any published studies linking the use of honey pacifiers to infant botulism, we also could not find any studies assessing the prevalence of honey pacifier use in general.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional, descriptive study using a novel survey that had 19 items.

Improving pediatrician knowledge about environmental triggers of asthma.

Background: Control of environmental triggers (ETs) greatly improves asthma outcomes in children. Disseminating these findings to general pediatricians has not been well established.

Methods: After delivering a structured and standardized presentation on ET identification and control to pediatricians, we surveyed them about knowledge and practices of ET assessment and management.

Development of supravalvular pulmonary artery stenosis following a Nuss procedure.

We report a case of a 13-year old girl with pectus excavatum who had a Nuss procedure and two years later a new cardiac murmur appeared which on investigation was diagnosed as supravalvular pulmonary artery stenosis. Following removal of the Nuss bar the stenosis resolved.