Dr Gioia Mosler

Queen Mary University

Learning and Outreach Officer: Reducing asthma admissions using a school-based intervention

Email:
g.mosler@qmul.ac.uk

In August 2014 I finished a PhD with Imperial College, MRC-PHE centre for environment and health, focusing on the effects of personal air pollution. Apart from a background in science, I always had an interest in communicating scientific knowledge. During my PhD I therefore volunteered within science and museum communications for the Medical Research Council, London Science Museum, Medway Science Centre and Victoria and Albert Museum of Childhood. I joined the NIHR CLAHRC funded School-based Asthma Project (SAP) in September 2014, for which I am responsible for Outreach and Learning. My role includes recruitment and liaison with currently 50 different partner organisations, of which 24 are schools, others are research organisations, health organisations, and a variety of private companies. In the first year of the project I organised questionnaire sessions in our partner schools with altogether 799 asthmatic secondary school students. A current focus of my work is the content development and testing of workshops and their educational elements, planned as part of a school-based asthma self-management intervention. One element of the planned workshops is an asthma game for which the final development and wider dissemination (both for a board game and a computer game version) are planned for 2016.