Navigating Asthmaniac to Find Your Best Asthma Control

Asthmaniac.com is a fully digital asthma clinic designed to deliver physician consultation, disease assessment, patient education, medical refills, and follow-up care.  This is different than making an appointment in a traditional clinic for asthma care.  So, how does it work?

Navigate to the website

Asthmaniac.com is a website that contains the links and information you will need to manage your asthma.  Simply navigate to Asthmaniac.com in your browser.  Once you are on the webpage, there are several areas you will likely use frequently.

Book Now

Pressing this button takes you to the scheduling page where you can choose from two selections: Inhaler Refill or Asthma Consultation.

If you are an established patient and simply need a refill of your rescue or control inhaler, select Inhaler Refill.  You will be taken to the calendar where you select the day and time of your appointment and make payment.  A confirmation will arrive in your email inbox along with a link to measure and report your ACT score and Peak Expiratory Flow.

If you are a new patient (new to Asthmaniac.com), select Asthma Consultation.  You will be taken to the calendar where you will select the day and time of your appointment and make payment. A confirmation will arrive in your email inbox along with a link to a medical history form that collects information about your past problems with asthma and any other health disorders.

Menu Bar

The row is directly below that Asthmaniac Motto: “Your Asthma Control is Our Mission”. 

The Menu Bar contains links to the most important areas of Asthmaniac.com.

Home:  This selection takes you back to the home page from your current page.

Blog:  This section is loaded with patient education covering a wide and ever-expanding number of topics essential for obtaining and keeping control of your asthma.  A list of blog posts is stacked along with the right side of this page, along with live links to corresponding podcasts.  These podcasts are also available on major podcasting platforms making them easy to consume and share!

Your Online Asthma Doctor:  This section describes the very simple structure and focus of Asthmaniac.com.  The components Asthmaniac delivers to you are described in six blurbs with links to pages with more information about each.

About:  This section describes the concept of asthma primary care – the core medical solution to assisting you to keep your asthma controlled.

ACT:  This link takes you to the Asthma Control Test page where you will learn about this test, how it is used to assess your asthma control, and contains a link that walks you through the test, with Freddy’s help.  The Asthma Control Test (ACT) score is used at every appointment and between appointments to give you feedback on your disease status.

Social Media Links

Links to Facebook, Twitter and Instagram appear in the top tab.  You can jump to each of these social media sites by clicking the icon for each.

The twitter feed is loaded with the latest research articles about asthma.

Footer

At the bottom of each page, you will find links for:

The Asthmaniac phone number; and

The Asthmaniac email  link;

In addition, there are links for:

The Home page;

The “Your Online Asthma Doctor” page;

The “Established Patient Process” page which describes how established patients receive their interval care;

The “New Patient Process” page which describes how new patients receive their first medical session;

The “Blog” page, which is filled with patient education materials;

The “Privacy” page which describes the Asthmanic privacy policy;

The “ACT” page which jumps you to the Asthma Control Test page.

Asthmaniac is Online Asthma Care

Asthmaniac is designed to deliver everything you need to achieve your best asthma control and with it, the best lung function, greatest exercise capacity and more quality sleep.  Doctor consults, digital disease assessment, prescription refills, and patient education, right on your phone, puts you in the most powerful position to keep a lid on wheezing for Life!

Are you ready to take control of your asthma?  Book an appointment today!

#asthmacontrolnow
#telemedicineasthmacare
#backpocketasthmadoc
#asthmaactionplan
#asthmacontroltest
#asthmacontroller
#rescueinhaler
#asthmacovid19
#childrenandasthma
#eprescription
#easthma
#peakexpiratoryflow
#peakflowmeter
#asthmaniac

High Deductible? Asthmaniac Is Best Value!

✓   You have a Health Insurance Policy

✘   But, it has a high deductible

????  Asthmaniac was made for you!

????  Affordable $50 doctor visits

✓   State-of-the-Art Asthma Care

✓   All online!

High-Deductible Health Insurance

The Accountable Care Act (Obamacare) created changes in the U.S health insurance market that allowed many more people to enroll in a health insurance plan.

The majority of these policies have a deductible that is large.

A deductible is the amount that you have to pay out-of-pocket before the policy kicks in.  This amount is usually many thousands of dollars!

This comes as a shock the first time you try to use your health insurance to pay for a doctor visit, a prescription, or worse, get admitted to the hospital where your bill quickly grows to tens of thousands of dollars. 

Ok, so like me, you have to pay out-of-pocket for the first several thousand dollars of medical services you need.

That means you will be shopping for the best value in medical products. 

Best value means: highest quality + lowest price.

In my three decades of practicing medicine, I’ve seen so many  patients with run-away, preventable disease whose illness got out of control because they did not got to a doctor earlier due to cost concerns.

That recurring theme motivated me to create a ‘clinic’ that IS affordable BUT delivers state-of-the-art medical care for you.

Asthmaniac is that clinic, specially focused on delivering the medical stuff asthma sufferers need.

 Stuff like:

• prescribed inhaler refills and controller medicines;
• a personalised action plan to guide them in responding to the symptoms;
• an affordable online/on-phone doctor to coach them to greater health; and
• a convenient, organised, accessible place to learn more about asthma.

I deliver this package through Asthmaniac which you can access on your smartphone, tablet or home computer.  

I price doctor visits at $50. 

If you have  well controlled asthma, you need 4 doctors visits a year to make sure that you have all of your needed medicines prescribed, that your asthma hasn’t changed into a more severe type, and to make sure you know how to respond if your breathing gets worse.

So fifty dollars per visit, thats..

$200 per year.

A doctor in your back pocket, coaching you to greater confidence and less anxiety about your asthma.

And if you have an HSA (Health Savings Account) with your high-deductible plan and need a receipt to reimburse yourself for your out-of-pocket Asthmaniac appointments –

I will make sure you have it!

That’s Asthmaniac!

Let’s get started!

Complete the subscription form on the right if you’d like to get an email when I post a new podcast and blog entry.

Remember our hashtag: #asthmacarenow!

And keep Breathing Easy!

#asthmacontrolnow
#telemedicineasthmacare
#backpocketasthmadoc
#asthmaactionplan
#asthmacontroltest
#asthmacontroller
#rescueinhaler
#asthmacovid19
#childrenandasthma
#eprescription
#easthma
#peakexpiratoryflow
#peakflowmeter
#asthmaniac

* e-Asthma is category of severe asthma

* Patients with e-Asthma have difficulty getting asthma control with usual treatment

* e-Asthma responds well to a new type of injected medicine

* In such patients, this new medicine can decrease their asthma attacks and allow them to use less oral steroid.

     e-Asthma is a type of severe asthma that responds well to a new kind of control medicine that you inject under skin, usually monthly.

     Severe Asthma means:

1. You’ve been on a high dose of inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) and a long-acting bronchodilator or theophylline for in the past year; and/or
2. You’ve been treated with steroids (like Prednisone) by mouth for more than half of the past year.

Wondering what “high dose” ICS means?

This new type of injectable asthma medicine has been shown to dramatically:

1. Reduce the number of asthma attacks you will have

2. Reduce how much oral steroid (like Prednisone) and ICS you need to stay controlled.

How do we know if your asthma is the type that will respond to this medicine?  You would be likely to get a good response to this new medicine if:

1. Your eosinophils are elevated in your bloodstream, and
2. Your allergy testing shows that you are triggered by seasonal allergens.

So, let’s review:

If 

You have been on high dose ICS (see above) or oral steroid for more than half of the year,

AND

You have skin allergy tests that show a problem

THEN

I would recommend having your blood drawn to measure your eosinophil count.

If your eosinophil count is elevated (35-700 IU/mL), you would be a good candidate to try this new type of medicine.

What medications would be considered?

Here is a list of subcutaneous medications that can be ordered for e-Asthma:

Omallzumab (Xolair) injected every 2 or 4 weeks depending on your eosinophil count and age

Dupilumab (Dupixent) injected every 2 weeks

Mepolizumab (Nucala) injected every 4 weeks

Benralizumab (Fasenra) injected every 4 weeks for 3 doses, then every 8 weeks.

Tezepelumab (Tezspire) injected every 4 weeks.  This medicine does not require any history of elevated eosinophils or prior testing for allergic asthma.

These medications are quite new and it will take some time for general practitioners to become educated about prescribing them.

But, they are available RIGHT NOW and if you are suffering from severe asthma, they could be a really good solution for getting your severe asthma under control.

Complete the subscription form on the right if you’d like to get an email when I post a new podcast and blog entry.

Remember our hashtag: #asthmacarenow! And keep Breathing Easy!

#asthmacontrolnow
#telemedicineasthmacare
#backpocketasthmadoc
#asthmaactionplan
#asthmacontroltest
#asthmacontroller
#rescueinhaler
#asthmacovid19
#childrenandasthma
#eprescription
#easthma
#peakexpiratoryflow
#peakflowmeter
#asthmaniac

* The National Institutes of Health, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute coordinated this update

* Recommendations were published on December 1, 2020.

* It Focuses on six areas:

….Fractional Exhaled Nitric Oxide Testing

….Indoor Allergen Mitigation

….Intermittent Inhaled Corticosteroids

….Immunotherapy in the Treatment of Allergic Asthma

….Bronchial Thermoplasty

* Only four of these six areas have immediate implications for asthma disease management in primary care.

* I’ll review the recommendations briefly here.

Major Points:

• These guidelines are not as wide-ranging as those developed and released in 2007.
• The new recommendations are based on reviews of the scientific literature and the use of the GRADE methodology for assigning a level of certainty (Low, Moderate, or High) for each recommendation.
• Of the six areas, only numbers 2, 3, 5, & 6 have practical implications for primary asthma care.

• The full guidelines:  2020 Focused Updates to the Asthma Management Guidelines:…
• I have put together a quick-read summary of the recommendations.  I have only included recommendations that have moderate or high certainty of benefit for patients.

Indoor Allergens: Pillow covers and mattress bags to seal in allergens are recommended if you have symptoms.  (Moderate Certainty)

Allergy Shots: SCIT (Subcutaneous Immunotherapy) is recommended for adults and children (>5 yr) with mild to moderate allergic asthma as long as they have lab or skin testing data to support the allergy. (Moderate Certainty).

Wheezing in Kids: Children from ages 0-4 yr with recurrent wheezing (3 x /year), triggered by colds and URI’s should have a short course (7-10 days) of inhaled corticosteroid at the onset of a new wheezing episode. (High Certainty).

In ages 4+ with moderate to severe-persistent asthma, a combination inhaler containing formoterol and steroid can be used as both a daily controller and as a rescue medicine. (Moderate to High Certainty).

In ages 12 + with mild persistent asthma, inhaled corticosteroids should be used daily, either along with rescue albuterol or in a combination inhaler that includes  albuterol. (Moderate Certainty).

This approach to wheezing is referred to as Single Maintenance And Reliever Therapy (SMART).  

UPDATE (3/17/22): Today, the FDA approved a generic inhaler containing formeterol and budesonide (the components of Symbicort)!  This will put SMART inhaler use within the price reach of asthma sufferers 5 years of age and older.

In age 12 + yr with uncontrolled, persistent asthma, Long Acting Muscarinic Antagonist (LAMA) medicine can be added to Inhaled Corticosteroid (ICS) for better control. (Moderate Certainty).

I have devoted a full page to discuss how these recommendations will affect my asthma care plans in further detail.

If you have questions about asthma management or want to update your asthma action plan and medication prescriptions, grab an appointment and let’s talk!

Complete the subscription form on the right if you’d like to get an email when I post a new podcast and blog entry.

#asthmacontrolnow
#telemedicineasthmacare
#backpocketasthmadoc
#asthmaactionplan
#asthmacontroltest
#asthmacontroller
#rescueinhaler
#asthmacovid19
#childrenandasthma
#eprescription
#easthma
#peakexpiratoryflow
#peakflowmeter
#asthmaniac