Breathmobile

Healthy First Saturdays

The University of Maryland Hospital for Children Partners with Port Discovery to Bring Asthma Education to Families

The University of Maryland Hospital for Children mixes asthma outreach with fun on the first Saturday of each month 11 a.m., at Port Discovery Children's Museum in downtown Baltimore.

The program is called Healthy First Saturdays, and it brings emergency department physicians, lung specialists, allergists, nurses and asthma experts to the museum to educate the families about asthma. This outreach is critically important during this flu season, since children with asthma are at increased risk of complications from both the seasonal and H1N1 flu.

The Breathmobile and the Healthy First Saturdays program are innovative approaches to asthma outreach and education, according to Mary Beth Bollinger, D.O., medical director of the Breathmobile. "Asthma is a chronic illness that can be controlled with the proper treatment," says Dr. Bollinger. "But for many asthmatic children, the hospital and emergency department are the only places they receive treatment, and then only for acute asthma attacks rather than preventive care. A critical component of keeping children healthy and out of the hospital is educating both parents and children and providing preventive care."

Asthma causes 640,000 missed school days each year in Maryland. Hospitalization rates among asthmatic children in Baltimore are three times higher than the rest of the country. And about half of Baltimore children with asthma have had an emergency department visit in the prior six months.

For more information contact Michelle Winner, Media Relations, Port Discovery, at 410-864-2680 or mwinner@portdiscovery.org.

This page was last updated on: July 26, 2011.

To learn more about the Breathmobile or to schedule an appointment,
please call 410-706-4000.