HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

Electronic Letters to:

RESEARCH AND PRACTICE: Charles E. Basch, Randi L. Wolf, Corey H. Brouse, Celia Shmukler, Alfred Neugut, Lawrence T. DeCarlo, and Steven Shea Telephone Outreach to Increase Colorectal Cancer Screening in an Urban Minority Population Am J Public Health 2006; 96: 2246-2253 [Abstract] [Full text] [PDF]

eLetters: Submit a response to this article

Electronic letters published:

Telephone support for asthma care

Mitchell Rubin   (13 December 2006)

Telephone support for asthma care 13 December 2006
Mitchell Rubin, physician New York University School of Medicine Send letter to journal: Re: Telephone support for asthma care mhr28{at}cornell.edu Mitchell Rubin	In reporting on the success of phone follow-up in their study of outreach to increase CRC screening, Dr. Basch and his colleagues argue that they have demonstrated the efficacy of a phone-based strategy for an inner-city population. However, the criteria they used for study inclusion, that is, current employment and health insurance, greatly limit the generalizability of their work to most poor urban populations, where employment may be spotty and health insurance rare. At our hospital-based pediatric asthma clinic serving poor and minority families in Brooklyn, New York, we recently attempted to follow-up with our patient families by phone four weeks after their clinic visits. Despite the focused work of an enthusiastic resident team, allowing up to four evening and week-end calls to each family in a linguistically competent manner, only 113 out of 224 (50%) were ever reached. Although caretakers were willing, when contacted, to engage in a meaningful follow-up “phone visit,” the lack of consistent phone access in this community makes phone follow-up a limited tool, at best.