Annals of allergy, asthma & immunology : official publication of the American College of Allergy, Asthma, & Immunology
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Ann. Allergy Asthma Immunol. · Apr 2002
Does introduction of new "easy to use" inhalational devices improve medical personnel's knowledge of their proper use?
Lack of basic inhaler skills by medical personnel has been documented by numerous studies. Consequently, training of patients in correct inhalational technique suffers. Newer dry powder inhalers such as Turbuhaler (budesonide, Astra USA, Westborough, MA) and Diskus (salmeterol, GlaxoSmithKline, Research Triangle Park, NC) have some advantages over conventional metereddose inhalers (MDIs) including easier technique of usage. They have been recently marketed with the hope of overcoming this problem. ⋯ Demonstration skills and knowledge scores for use of both budedsonide and salmeterol were substantially lower than that for MDI for all medical personnel. Medical personnel responsible for teaching the correct use of inhalational devices are lacking in basic knowledge and user skills. This likely contributes to patient's poor technique when using these devices.