The CONNECT Collaborator Series is an interview series where we host conversations with healthcare professionals and partners with the goal of encouraging deeper collaboration in the healthcare industry.
Watch Part 2 of the CONNECT Collaborator Series video featuring our Co-Founder, Lorie Spence and President & CEO of Asthma Canada, Jeffrey Beach.
Lorie Spence: Welcome to the CONNECT Collaborator Interview Series, where we host 10-minute conversations with healthcare professionals and partners with the goal of encouraging deeper collaboration in the healthcare industry.
Today’s guest is Jeffrey Beach, President & CEO of Asthma Canada. With over 25 years of leadership in the Canadian non-profit sector, Jeff has dedicated his career to empowering individuals facing health and social challenges. He has held executive roles at organizations like the Canadian Spondyloarthritis Association, Cystic Fibrosis Canada, and The Arthritis Society. Jeff is also an active volunteer, serving on boards such as the Women’s Brain Health Initiative and the Health Charities Coalition of Canada. Welcome, Jeff and thank you for joining us!
Jeffrey Beach: Thank you, Lorie. I appreciate you inviting me to be here, and it’s a pleasure to be here.
Lorie Spence: Despite all of the great things that you’re doing, we know that there are always challenges. What would you say are some of the challenges Asthma Canada is facing, and what are you doing to tackle these challenges?
Jeffrey Beach: As an organization representing the interests and the needs of patients across the country—it’s a big group, we’re talking about over four and a half million people that are diagnosed with asthma—there are studies that have recently been done in Canada and other countries that show there are a lot more people who are undiagnosed, who actually have asthma and maybe don’t even know or haven’t been diagnosed yet. It’s a big session of the population, and it is also a disease that has a number of different subtypes and severities associated with it. Some people have very mild asthma that doesn’t necessarily require ongoing medication and treatment. Oftentimes, people with mild asthma can manage their disease by avoiding certain triggers, like pet dander or smoke.
We also know there are people that have moderate and severe asthma. Severe asthma affects about 5 to 10% of the people living with asthma in Canada, and those forms of severe asthma and different subtypes can be very difficult to treat. It can take people years of trial and error with different types of medication, working with their healthcare team to really find the right treatment options that work best for them. And so, for people living with severe asthma, there are day-to-day challenges that sometimes prevent them from working or from going to school on a regular basis. Absenteeism is a big problem for students and people in the workforce, especially on the severe asthma side. It can be a very serious disease. It can also lead to death. In some cases, there are several hundred people every year who die from asthma-related causes. It can be quite shocking when you hear that because most people think of asthma as just something that you live with, but it is a serious disease. It is a disease that, for most people, can be controlled, but that doesn’t happen without proper treatment and a proper asthma action plan. That’s the message that we want to leave with people: to take it seriously and make sure that they are availing themselves of resources and treatment options.
Lorie Spence: Fabulous. I know one of the things that you mentioned earlier is that Asthma Canada recently conducted a national survey. Could share a bit more about what the purpose of the survey was and some of the key findings, and how that’s informing where you’re going as you move forward as an organization?
Jeffrey Beach: Sure. We launched a national survey earlier this year in 2024, and we ended up with just under 1500—about 1400—respondents to that survey from across the asthma community. We reached people who are already engaged with us and part of our community and others who are not and experiencing challenges living with asthma themselves. We do this type of survey at least every couple of years just to take a pulse on what’s happening with the asthma community, their concerns, and what we might be able to address through our education, advocacy and research efforts.
We know that asthma does take a toll on mental health, but I think that the real toll and the real comorbidity around mental health for people living with asthma is something that’s not really been paid attention to and hasn’t been studied as much as it needs to be. Through our survey, we found that one in two people have, for example, experienced stress or embarrassment about using their asthma medication, or their inhaler, in public. We’re talking about kids in school, people in workplaces, people who are out shopping or in transit or whatever the case may be. One in two of the respondents felt like they were embarrassed and had stress around that. We know that over 90% of the respondents report that they’ve had some degree of stress because of their asthma directly related to their asthma. That’s almost everyone who responded to the survey. That’s a result that we can’t ignore. We know that asthma is definitely taking a toll on people’s mental health.
We also know that asthma can lead to financial strains because not all medications that are effective in treating asthma are widely and publicly available for people who don’t have sufficient insurance coverage. For example, health insurance or whether they may be living in a jurisdiction where all of their medications are not covered. There can be financial strain around that. There can also be financial strain because people are perhaps less productive or not able to fully engage in the work that they want to do because of their asthma. If asthma is not well controlled, it can lead to absenteeism or even what’s known as presenteeism. Or maybe people are working, but they’re not working to their full potential because of the health concerns that they have around their asthma.
Another highlight from this year’s survey was that the impact of air quality becoming more and more and more prevalent for people living with asthma in Canada. We know that about 98% of the respondents from our recent survey said they felt the impact of poor air quality on their asthma. Again, almost all people responded that they had felt that impact when related to conditions like wildfire smoke, for example, which has become a much bigger issue. It was not just for people who are living in the immediate areas in Alberta, BC and east coast, where wildfires are actively burning. Wildfire smoke can travel great distances, and even people in areas like Southern Ontario that normally aren’t affected by wildfire smoke are reporting that over the last couple of years, it is something that has affected them, and they’re having to limit their activities or revisit treatment options because of the effects. There’s a pressing need for stronger air quality policies to protect all of us, but especially for people living with asthma and different health conditions. Those are some of the things that our survey found this year that we’re trying to highlight and bring forward.
Lorie Spence: That’s fantastic. And we can’t really talk about healthcare without bringing up technology. One of the things that we wanted to understand is how Asthma Canada is leveraging digital platforms and technology to connect with patient providers in public or if there are any initiatives you’re really excited about in this area.
Jeffrey Beach: Technology has certainly changed the way we operate as an organization at Asthma Canada. If you go back 10-20 years, what I think we were probably best known for was the production of print resources and booklets that were available in medical clinics, respirologist’s offices and allergists across the country, and we still do those things. We do have some print resources available, but what we can do now through online and digital resources is so much more comprehensive, and it’s also something that we can continue to update as situations change and as new treatment options become available.
A lot of the information that we offer is available online. We also can bring educational resources directly to people through digital means. We’re actively involved in social media. We also have a webinar series that we offer several times a year where we bring experts in to talk about issues that matter to the community. We just did a webinar earlier in November on vaccines, why vaccines are important, and the types of vaccinations that people with asthma should be availing themselves of and paying attention to. We can record and offer those live, and then through YouTube and our other social media channels, we can get that out to a much bigger section of the population.
We’re also working with partners right now on including Asthma Canada’s resources in apps. For example, there are a lot of different patient apps that are available that we want to make sure that we’re tied to and able to provide that credible information to.
We are working with one of our global partners—we belong to a global airway and allergies patient platform, the G.A.A.P.P..—on a chatbot that we hope will eventually be part of our website. It’s not generative, AI, it’s not scouring the internet for all kinds of sources. It’s more like a navigator or a guide. When people come to our website, they may not know what they need to know, right? So the chatbot would guide them and help them and bring them to the type of information and support that they need. That’s something that we hope is on the not-too-distant horizon. There’s a lot happening in technology. It’s exciting. Sometimes it’s a little scary, but we’re trying to make sure that we make it work for people in terms of connecting them with the information that they need from us.
Lorie Spence: It does sound very exciting. Before we sign off, can you let us know where we can learn more about Asthma Canada and find you as well, Jeff?
Jeffrey Beach: I think the best way to find out more about Asthma Canada is through our website, asthma.ca. It’s a website that’s available 24/7 so people can avail themselves of the information we have. We have a lot of our resources available in both English and French, and we’re constantly looking to build that library of resources that we offer through web-based platforms, webinars and other forms of information sharing that we’re looking at. You can also connect with us on social media. We’re actively involved on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or X, and LinkedIn as well.
I’m pretty active on LinkedIn, and I’m always happy to connect with people there. As I mentioned earlier, we do have this helpline that’s available both in English and in French, which is, in some ways, kind of a best-kept secret. I would say that a lot of people don’t necessarily know, or we’re not sure what it’s about. Maybe they’ve heard about it, or they see it on our website. Basically, it’s an open-ended opportunity. To learn more, you can email info@asthma.ca, or if you go to our website, there’s a toll-free number that you can call in and that will connect you directly with a certified respiratory educator—somebody who is trained specifically to counsel and offer education and resources to people living with asthma.
We would encourage people at any point if you have any questions—doesn’t have to be any big, grand questions, it could be any questions at all where you feel like you could benefit from us—please reach out. Please email us or call us, and we’ll be there to support you in any way that we can. And if we don’t have the answers, we’ll find them, or we’ll connect you with other resources and people who can provide the information and help that you’re looking for.
Lorie Spence: Excellent. Thank you again for joining us, and we really look forward to following where Asthma Canada continues to evolve and expand as well as you on your journey.
Jeffrey Beach: Thank you so much for giving us this opportunity and helping us leverage our profile and make sure that people know that we’re there and we’re here to help you.
For part 1 of this interview, click here.
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