28 Catching up with...(continued) Tyra Bryant-Stephens 2013 Health Leader Tyra Bryant-Stephens, M.D., is medical director of the Community Asthma Prevention Program (CAPP) at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Dr. Tyra Bryant-Stephens says the Community Asthma Prevention Program she leads has “made some strides” since she was interviewed for the 2013 edition of Leading Healthy Change. In the program, community health workers visit the homes of children with asthma. They teach the children and their families what they can do to prevent asthma flare-ups. Asthma is a serious disease that affects a person’s airways. The airways can swell when they are irritated by things like smoke or cat dander. These are called triggers. The community health workers can help identify triggers and suggest changes that will help a child with asthma. For instance, they might recommend putting a special cover on a pillow to protect against dust mites. Dust mites are tiny white bugs that can trigger an asthma attack. Asthma can sometimes be so serious that people wind up in the hospital. Some even die from asthma attacks, says Dr. Bryant- Stephens. Hispanic people are more likely to get asthma, but African-Americans are more likely to die from it, she says. Dr. Bryant-Stephens’ program has been so successful that insurance companies now pay for community health workers to make home visits. Children in the CAPP program make 30 percent to 40 percent fewer trips to the hospital to be treated for asthma attacks, she says. Dr. Bryant-Stephens says she and her team at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia are working with the Philadelphia Department of Public Health to expand CAPP. She also is working with people in Pittsburgh to develop the program in that city as well. She says the people the program helps— about 400 a year—keep her motivated. “My goal is asthma control so children can go to school, sleep at night, and do whatever they want,” she says. —By Healthy Outlook staff St. Raymond of Penafort Catholic School