Joe Gerald, MD, PhD is a health services researcher with expertise in the economic evaluation of health interventions, including their cost effectiveness, particularly those involving respiratory disease. Dr. Gerald has conducted economic analyses of respiratory interventions including tuberculosis contact investigation strategies, school-based asthma screening strategies and hand hygiene strategies in elementary schools. He is an expert in the use of short-cycle (daily) Markov modeling to estimate the cost per quality-adjusted life-year (QALY) of health interventions.

His recent work argued for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to make albuterol and other asthma controller medications available for over-the-counter (OTS) use. This work was published in the Annals of the American Thoracic Society. His ongoing research interests include school-based asthma care, overuse of albuterol, and differential response to treatment with inhaled corticosteroids.

This lecture will outline past experiences with prescription-only to OTC switches in the United States and abroad. Based on past experiences with other medications, projections of the impact of making asthma prescription-only medications more readily available will be examined.

For more information, please contact Jackie Gomez, phone 626-4912 email leonj@email.arizona.edu