The following blog post was written by fellow UHPer and Fall 2024 SURE Award recipient, Riley Lima (Public Health, ’26). Read on about Riley’s research and how she plans to utilize the SURE Award funding to further expand upon her experience!
Asthma disproportionately impacts children and their families in Wards 7 and 8 of Washington, DC, as they face significant barriers to care. As an Emergency Department Technician, I am a part of the care team receiving many adolescent patients in respiratory distress and failure from asthma exacerbations. Anecdotally, a few parents have shared with me about financial barriers to physicians, and as a result, a lack of access to the life-saving prescription medication albuterol.
This led me to research this disparity further and create my project, the School-Based Asthma Telehealth (SAT) Intervention & Research Study, which seeks to address these inequities by providing telehealth visits with an asthma educator and physician from the IMPACT DC clinic. By improving education and improving access to asthma management for children and their families, we hope to reduce ER readmissions, increase medication compliance, and decrease school absences.
The SURE Award funding will supplement funding acquired through the 2024-2025 Knapp Fellowship, in which all funds from the SURE Award will be used to enhance the scope of the current project. Current funding supports the operation of expanding IMPACT DC’s In-Person visits to Telehealth appointments to 20 new patients. Throughout my time at GW and in the Emergency Department, I have learned two things. The first is the importance of advocating for change when inequities persist. If you notice something that is not right and you do not speak up, change does not happen! In my opinion, Gandhi says it best, “Be the change that you wish to see in the world”! My faculty mentor, Dr. Maranda Ward, has taught me in HONR 2047: Applied Health Equity to look out for these inequities in daily life. I am especially grateful for the support of the UHP and UHP faculty, as I would not be the person I am today!
As data collection continues for the SAT Intervention and Study, I plan to analyze the results next semester to assess the novel program’s impact. These findings will be presented at academic conferences and shared with healthcare and educational leaders to explore the scalability of this model in other communities. I am incredibly grateful for the support of the SURE Award, which allows me to take these next steps and continue working toward a healthier, more equitable future for all children in DC.
Interested in applying for your own SURE Award funding? Find out more about the application process here!
