Integrating evidence-based paediatric asthma management in Australian primary care: phase I protocol for developing...

Area of Science:

• Implementation Science
• Paediatric Respiratory Medicine
• General Practice Research

Background:

• Asthma is a common chronic respiratory condition in Australian children.
• Adherence to paediatric asthma care guidelines in general practice is suboptimal, estimated below 60% in some areas.
• The National Paediatric Applied Research Translation Initiative (N-PARTI) aims to improve care for priority conditions, including asthma.

Purpose of the Study:

• To outline Phase I of the N-PARTI asthma stream, focusing on developing an Implementation Bundle for evidence-based paediatric asthma management in general practices.
• To refine a multicomponent asthma Implementation Bundle through evidence synthesis and co-design workshops.
• To map clinical workflows and explore contextual factors in Primary Health Networks to inform tailored implementation strategies.

Main Methods:

• A mixed-method, co-design approach involving children with asthma, parents, carers, and stakeholders.
• Evidence synthesis and co-design workshops to verify and refine the Implementation Bundle.
• Interviews and observations using Functional Resonance Analysis Method (FRAM) to map clinical workflows.
• Stakeholder interviews and reflexive thematic analysis informed by the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) to explore contextual factors.

Main Results:

• Development of a refined, contextually adapted paediatric asthma Implementation Bundle.
• Identification of variations in routine practice and contextual factors influencing implementation.
• Creation of resources to support real-world simulation, testing, tailoring, scale-up, and evaluation in subsequent phases.

Conclusions:

• Phase I successfully developed a co-designed asthma Implementation Bundle tailored for Australian general practices.
• The findings will inform Phase II (simulation and testing) and Phase III (scale-up and evaluation) of the N-PARTI program.
• This research aims to optimize guideline-concordant paediatric asthma care in primary health settings.