Assessment of Asthma Inhaler Technique in Two Community Pharmacies

Objectives: To 1) assess inhaler technique in patients with asthma who present to a community pharmacy and 2) determine if patients find it desirable to have further inhaler education from pharmacists. Methods: Participants were recruited when picking up their inhalers at either one chain or one independent pharmacy from May 2012 to December 2012. Any person 18 years of age or older, diagnosed with asthma, and currently prescribed an inhaler was eligible for inclusion in the study. Those who voluntarily agreed to participate were provided a written survey to evaluate current inhaler usage and past education from pharmacists. Participants were then asked to demonstrate how they currently operate their inhalers and observations regarding technique were recorded. Participants were then educated on what improvements could be made in their technique, if applicable. Results: A total of 31 surveys were completed for this study, of which only 3(9.6%) of the respondents were observed to be using their inhalers properly; however 18(58%) rated their technique as a 5 out of 5 on a Likert scale with 5 being the best. Almost all respondents (96.7%) classified their inhalers as "easy" or "very easy" to use, and 13 (41.9%) would prefer more education from pharmacists regarding their inhalers. Conclusion: The results of this study identified a significant need for patients to be educated on proper inhaler technique. It also revealed a high patient preference for pharmacists to offer additional education to patients using asthma inhalers upon initiation of inhaler therapy and with inhaler refills.   Type: Student Projec

Assessment of Asthma Inhaler Technique in Two Community Pharmacies

Objectives: To 1) assess inhaler technique in patients with asthma who present to a community pharmacy and 2) determine if patients find it desirable to have further inhaler education from pharmacists. Methods: Participants were recruited when picking up their inhalers at either one chain or one independent pharmacy from May 2012 to December 2012. Any person 18 years of age or older, diagnosed with asthma, and currently prescribed an inhaler was eligible for inclusion in the study. Those who voluntarily agreed to participate were provided a written survey to evaluate current inhaler usage and past education from pharmacists. Participants were then asked to demonstrate how they currently operate their inhalers and observations regarding technique were recorded. Participants were then educated on what improvements could be made in their technique, if applicable. Results: A total of 31 surveys were completed for this study, of which only 3(9.6%) of the respondents were observed to be using their inhalers properly; however 18(58%) rated their technique as a 5 out of 5 on a Likert scale with 5 being the best. Almost all respondents (96.7%) classified their inhalers as "easy" or "very easy" to use, and 13 (41.9%) would prefer more education from pharmacists regarding their inhalers. Conclusion: The results of this study identified a significant need for patients to be educated on proper inhaler technique. It also revealed a high patient preference for pharmacists to offer additional education to patients using asthma inhalers upon initiation of inhaler therapy and with inhaler refills.   Type: Student Projec

WISE/NEOWISE Observations of Comet 103P/Hartley 2

We report results based on mid-infrared photometry of comet 103P/Hartley 2 taken during 2010 May 4-13 (when the comet was at a heliocentric distance of 2.3 AU, and an observer distance of 2.0 AU) by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer. Photometry of the coma at 22 μm and data from the University of Hawaii 2.2 m telescope obtained on 2010 May 22 provide constraints on the dust particle size distribution, d log n/d log m, yielding power-law slope values of alpha = –0.97 ± 0.10, steeper than that found for the inbound particle fluence during the Stardust encounter of comet 81P/Wild 2. The extracted nucleus signal at 12 μm is consistent with a body of average spherical radius of 0.6 ± 0.2 km (one standard deviation), assuming a beaming parameter of 1.2. The 4.6 μm band signal in excess of dust and nucleus reflected and thermal contributions may be attributed to carbon monoxide or carbon dioxide emission lines and provides limits and estimates of species production. Derived carbon dioxide coma production rates are 3.5(± 0.9) × 10^(24) molecules per second. Analyses of the trail signal present in the stacked image with an effective exposure time of 158.4 s yields optical-depth values near 9 × 10^(–10) at a delta mean anomaly of 0.2 deg trailing the comet nucleus, in both 12 and 22 μm bands. A minimum chi-squared analysis of the dust trail position yields a beta-parameter value of 1.0 × 10^(–4), consistent with a derived mean trail-grain diameter of 1.1/ρ cm for grains of ρ g cm^(–3) density. This leads to a total detected trail mass of at least 4 × 10^(10) ρ kg