December 12th, 2017
During the summer of 1995, the board convened several meetings to evaluate the possibility of an initiative focused on asthma.A diverse group of representatives of nonprofit agencies, physicians, researchers, health-care providers, and other grant makers attended these meetings. These focus groups outlined the magnitude of the problem in Chicago. They counseled that although asthma is not a curable disease, with proper diagnosis and treatment, the risk of mortality for persons with asthma should be similar to that of the general population. They observed that many individuals with asthma are not receiving correct diagnoses and may not be following a prescribed program of care. They also questioned whether health-care providers in the Chicago area were providing care in accordance with the asthma guidelines of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health.