The Asthma Podcast - Transcript December 2009

Luke: Welcome to the Asthma Podcast. Every month we’ll bring you news, research updates and ways you can support us.

This month we launch a new system that makes it easier than ever for people with asthma and healthcare professionals to order printed information. Also, we find out more about the work of our Supporter and Information Team. And we have details of 18 new research projects being funded by Asthma UK.
 

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Luke: 2009 has been a challenging but exciting year for Asthma UK and we’d like to say a huge thank you to our supporters. Our SIT team are the first point of contact for people who get in touch with Asthma UK and we’re joined by Robbie and Lisa from the team today. Robbie, if we could start with you, could you give us a run through of your team’s role on how you help.
 
Robbie: Hi and hello to everyone listening. Day to day the Supporter and Information Team answers calls and deals with emails and we log them on our database so that we can then send out relevant information and also that we can in the future tell people enquire, we can tell them about our work. We talk to supporters in detail and we promote aspects about our work, where they can help – could be through volunteering, financial support or becoming a member. So basically, we are the first point of contact for all enquirers and our number 0800 121 62 55 is dotted around the website. So if you’re thinking of calling Asthma UK but you just don’t know who to call then call us, we may not know the answer to your question straightaway but we can certainly find out for you.
 
Luke: And can you just us an idea of the scale of how many people you deal with that you talk to in a year and communicate with?
 
Robbie: Sure, it varies really across the seasons but just to give you an example I’ve got some figures here… in 2008 through 2009 we dealt with just under 16,000 emails, just over 4,300 pieces of mail and we had just over 4,200 phone calls that came into us and out of these we logged new contacts as in new people coming to Asthma UK was over 17,500. So I mean, it’s quite substantial figures we’re talking about here.
 
Luke: Absolutely and a big part of your role is dealing with information orders both online and over the phone and Lisa we’ve recently been working on a new ordering system online haven’t we, for people with asthma.
 
Lisa: We have indeed.
 
Luke: Can you tell us a bit more about that?
 
Lisa: Yeah, it came about that we wanted to make the system a lot more easier and clearer for people to order information about asthma, whether that be someone that’s newly diagnosed or a healthcare professional that orders on a regular basis so we’ve devised a system that makes it more accessible for people to be able to go to the specific categories that are relevant to them. We’re trying to signpost people to choose the information from the categories that’s relevant to them. What we have been finding in the past is that people are maybe a little bit unsure of what information is relevant to them so we’re trying to tailor this service so we as the experts feel that they’re getting the right information for them.
 
Luke: As an example, if a parent of a child with asthma wanted to order information it would now be much easier for them to find what they’re looking for?
 
Lisa: Yes it would, we’ve got the new category for people or parents of children with asthma and they can restrict that categorisation and it will take them through to a sub-page and on that page we’ve put key information that we feel would be suitable for them in that situation rather than previously ordering everything that may not necessarily be relevant to their child or their situation.
 
Luke: And as well as health information, there’s also reports from the charity that are available as well?
 
Lisa: There are, so again they’re available for people with asthma and healthcare professionals. We do find though, that a lot of healthcare professionals tend to download the reports than people with asthma just because there’s a lot more statistical information in them. And we do get more calls from maybe student nurses or people that are actually training to become asthma nurses that may use the reports in their relevant dissertations.
 
Luke: And we should also stress that for people with asthma, this information is free or charge.
 
Lisa: Yes the information is free of charge and we’d like to continue to be able to offer this service to people with asthma however obviously as a charity that runs entirely on voluntary donations we would appreciate a small donation possibly to cover the cost of postage. So as well people being to call us for the information as my colleague Robbie stated before, they can go online and order the information and it is asthma.org.uk/publications.
 

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Luke: This year, Asthma UK is funding 18 new research projects to help understand the causes of asthma, develop new treatments and improve people’s quality of life. To find out more we’re joined by Dr Elaine Vickers from our Research Team. Can you tell us what type of projects we’re funding this year.
 
Elaine: Well we’re funding 18 projects as you said and they range from really science-y projects to understand asthma, understand its causes and do the first stages in developing new treatments but we’re also funding work to understand the impact that asthma has on people’s quality of life.
 
Luke: Are they all quite similar to one another?
 
Elaine: No, not at all they’re really diverse range of projects. As every year, we pick out the ones that have the best science, that have the best likelihood of benefiting people with asthma but after that we don’t try and say we just fund research into the causes of asthma or research into new asthma treatments. So we’ve got the huge variety of projects so we’re looking at whether Vitamin D supplements during pregnancy can lower a child’s risk of allergy and asthma. We’re looking at new vaccines to prevent hay fever symptoms, looking at the diversity of severe asthma and why it is that some treatments some people and not others. You know, science to understand the nuts and bolts of the biology of asthma to new leads that might one day lead to new asthma treatments. So there’s a wide range of projects we’re funding this year.
 
Luke: That sounds great. These projects are all one year projects. Can you tell us why this is?
 
Elaine: Yes, this is a bit of a change for Asthma UK. In the past we funded projects between one and three years long but this year we decided to do it rather differently. As we’re all aware, the financial climate we’re in at the moment is unstable, a lot of charities are struggling and we didn’t want to make commitments that at the end of the day, we couldn’t fulfil to scientists. And also, there’s a desire to fund a wider range of projects and to get some really new innovative and unusual projects off the ground so that in future, with solid foundation through our funding, a solid foundation of evidence, the scientists can go to some of the bigger research funders and leverage larger sums of money for asthma research, sums that they wouldn’t normally have access to.