Asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are common chronic lung diseases that are diagnosed in more than 30 million adults in the United States. However, diagnostic error (DE), is considered one of the most common and harmful of patient-safety problems by the Institute of Medicine, occur frequently with asthma and/or COPD and disproportionately affect minorities and the under-served. DE leads to lost opportunities to identify other chronic conditions, avoidable morbidity and mortality, unnecessary costs to patients and health systems, and poor quality of care. Shortness of breath or dyspnea, which is a common symptom in asthma and COPD, is also common for many other chronic conditions such as cardiovascular disease and obesity. A better understanding of the impact of DE and interventions to improve diagnostic accuracy in asthma and COPD are of particular importance for minorities and the under-served that are disproportionately affected by conditions leading to dyspnea.
Spirometry is a simple, mobile, and essential test that is recommended by all major national and international guidelines for the diagnosis of asthma and COPD. However it is well known that spirometry is not routinely used in the ambulatory primary care setting and minorities and the underserved population are less likely to have spirometry leading to greater prevalence of DE. It has been estimated that 30-50% of people with an existing diagnosis of asthma and COPD were found to be misdiagnosed. Many of these patients misdiagnosed with asthma and/or COPD receive unnecessary respiratory pharmacotherapy which can pose serious risks including pneumonia, cardiovascular events, and mortality. In the setting of DE, these are considered avoidable and unnecessary respiratory pharmacotherapy use in minorities and the underserved that are already disproportionately affected by cardiovascular disease increases the risk of poorer outcomes. There is also DE in the diagnosis of asthma versus COPD, as these are both clinically distinct respiratory disorders with nuances in treatment recommendations. It is reported that African-Americans are considered to have increasing COPD mortality and are disproportionately affected by asthma death rates. However, as spirometry is not routinely performed and DE is prevalent in asthma and COPD, a component of these poor outcomes may be attributable to missed or delayed diagnoses of other chronic conditions or misdiagnosis within asthma and COPD.
Barriers to the use of spirometry in primary care exist at provider and health systems levels. Previous studies show that primary care providers (PCPs) lack knowledge in existing guidelines and in implementing spirometry into primary care clinics. Beyond these barriers, PCPs struggle with logistical challenges such as time and workflow constraints with clinic visits lasting 15 minutes or less in patients with multiple chronic medical conditions. These predisposing and enabling factors explain why prior studies that included interventions to educate PCPs and incorporate spirometry by training personnel in primary care clinics have had limited results.
A new paradigm to improve guideline based care for asthma and COPD which includes spirometry is needed and can lead to a better understanding of DE and improved patient safety and patient-centered outcomes. Health Promoters or Community health workers (CHWs) have been supplementing medical care by disseminating appropriate health care practices for underserved minority populations. However, studies which include diagnostic evaluations with spirometry for asthma and COPD have not been performed. The REDEFINE program (Reducing Diagnostic Error to Improve PatieNt SafEty in COPD and Asthma) will incorporate health promoters working collaboratively with PCPs to address identified barriers to guideline based care which includes spirometry for the diagnosis of asthma and COPD for patients at risk for DE. We propose a comparative effectiveness study to better understand the epidemiology of DE and to evaluate the effectiveness and economic impact of providing the REDEFINE program to an underserved, predominantly minority population with a diagnosis of asthma and/or COPD at risk for DE.
