ROCHESTER, N.Y. — New research at the U of R Medical Center shows that school-administered asthma medication and the use of telemedicine helps reduce emergency room visits for kids with asthma by more than 50 percent.

Dr. Jill Halterman and her asthma research team studied 400 Rochester City School children, ages 3-to-10, who have asthma.

In the study, children who took their asthma medication at school under nurse supervision were less likely to have asthma flare-ups.

The students' parents also took part in regularly-scheduled telemedicine with their child's primary care doctor.

The study shows that consistent, managed and supervised preventative medicine helps reduce asthma symptoms and trips to the emergency room.

"Typically, we require kids to come to our office and find their way in during hours that may be difficult for them. So we are trying to rethink that model and say ‘let's see if we can go to where the kids are to deliver care and work with the community systems that are already in place to focus on prevention,’" said Halterman.

This asthma research will be published in the American Medical Association Journal of Pediatrics.