Tele-education may be a valuable approach for educating patients with asthma in under-served communities

Abstract

In Brazil, few people have access to asthma specialists. We conducted a survey in São Paulo city to evaluate the population's general knowledge about asthma. The results were used to guide the development of a 3-D video for patient education. The video presentation was about 12 min long. It used animated sequences to explain the pathophysiology of asthma (e.g. the anatomy of the respiratory system, the lung, the alveoli, mechanism of respiration). The object was to motivate the general public to change their habits. The motivation video can be delivered via the Internet or by DVD and can used by non-medical professionals. It will need to be tested formally in the context of primary care from the point of view of knowledge retention, cost and patient motivation.