Asthma: The Wisconsin Asthma Program
The Wisconsin Asthma Program works to:
- Help local communities identify, evaluate, and carry out actions that improve asthma outcomes.
- Carry out the Wisconsin Asthma Plan with local partners.
- Monitor changes in asthma rates and how well Wisconsinites' asthma is controlled over time.
- Prioritize and carry out public health interventions for asthma that help people with asthma live their best lives.
- Use CDC’s (Center for Disease Control and Prevention) EXHALE strategies to improve asthma control and lower health-care costs.
The latest
- 2020 Focused Updates to the Asthma Management Guidelines: A Report from the National Asthma Education and Prevention Program Coordinating Committee Expert Panel Working Group—These guideline updates from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health were designed to improve patient care and support informed decision-making for managing asthma in clinical settings.
- Home-Based Asthma Program Improves Asthma Outcomes, P-02403 (PDF)—Asthma Care Program data showed improved health outcomes and reduced asthma-related hospitalizations and emergency room visits.
- Influenza Vaccination Rates Among People with Asthma, P-01218 (PDF)—The Wisconsin Immunization and Wisconsin Asthma programs developed this document to monitor flu vaccine rates in children and adults with asthma.
- Wisconsin Asthma Burden Report 2020, P-02412-20 (PDF)—The report provides a summary of asthma burden data in Wisconsin and describes the scope of the asthma problem, including numbers of people:
- With asthma (prevalence).
- Experiencing severe asthma symptoms (control).
- Accessing health care to treat asthma (health care usage).
- Who die from asthma (mortality).
- Wisconsin Asthma Plan 2021–2025 (PDF)—The asthma plan includes goals, objectives, and strategies to improve asthma outcomes.
Program history
The Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) has monitored asthma since 1992 and began coordinating asthma interventions two years later. DHS expanded its asthma program in 2001 with funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In 2003, it adopted its first asthma plan in partnership with the Children’s Health Alliance of Wisconsin. The plan provided a blueprint the state could use to help improve the lives of people with asthma. The updated Wisconsin Asthma Plan 2021–2025 (PDF) is now available.
Today, the Wisconsin Asthma Program partners with the Wisconsin Asthma Coalition to carry out the goals of the state’s asthma plan.