Molly Jacobs, MPH¹, Polly Hoppin, ScD¹, and Laurie Stillman, MM². (1) Environmental Health Program, Tellus Institute, 11 Arlington St., Boston, MA 02116, 617-266-5400, mjacobs@tellus.org, (2) Asthma Regional Council of New England, The Medical Foundation, 622 Washington St., 2nd floor, Dorchester, MA 02124

Driven by recent research demonstrating the utility and validity of data maintained by school nurses in documenting trends in pediatric asthma, the inclusion of school-based data in the asthma surveillance programs of several New England states and the recent history of successful collaboration among New England states in standardizing pediatric asthma questions in their Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Surveys, the New England Asthma Regional Council (ARC) has undertaken an initiative to develop a New England-wide approach to school based asthma surveillance. On behalf of ARC, the presenters conducted a review of school-based surveillance activities across the New England states, inventoried data mechanisms school nurses use in each state to collect and report on information about students with asthma and identified potential strategies to move forward in the development of a surveillance approach capable of generating comparable data across New England. The presenters will present the results of the data reviews and key elements of the regional strategy, describe the process used to facilitate collaboration among states to pursue a regional approach to school-based asthma surveillance, present the status of key issues such as data standardization and outline opportunities and constraints for others to consider when developing such a system.

Learning Objectives: At the end of the session, participants will be able to

• identify the potential for a school-based asthma surveillance system to utilize existing asthma data collection and reporting mechanisms; and
• discuss possible strategies for developing a regional approach to school-based asthma surveillance.

Keywords: Asthma, Surveillance

Related Web page: www.asthmaregionalcouncil.org/

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.