About Us

The Colorado Asthma Toolkit Program (CATP) seeks to build greater capacity in primary healthcare settings to effectively treat asthma. CATP has successfully trained 100 primary care practices in Colorado, mostly in rural areas and all providing care to medically underserved patients. The program includes:

1. Participation in a 6 hour group training session, which provides essential information for best-practice, guidelines-directed asthma care.
2. A free spirometer and training in its use and interpretation.
3. CATP materials that include provider manuals detailing asthma guidelines as well as patient workbooks, which help facilitate provider-patient interactions and help patients to manage their asthma.

After the group session has been completed, a member of the training team travels to each practice to give further training to the entire healthcare team, including physicians, nurses, physician assistants and medical assistants. All providers receive hands-on practice in spirometry, review difficult cases, and discuss how to incorporate asthma care into their practice.

The CATP training program results in significantly increased use of spirometry, asthma action plans and inhaled corticosteroid medication. These three behaviors are at the core of evidence-based asthma management and can significantly reduce patient suffering and costly health care utilization.

Funding. The CATP training has been provided through a series of educational grants. Additional trainings will be scheduled as funding become available. Access to the password protected section of this website is available only to providers who have been trained in the CATP program, and includes access to CATP learning materials, Frequently Asked Questions, and a social networking site for further questions and discussion.