BACKGROUND:

The Multicenter Airway Research Collaboration (MARC) was created by 12 emergency physicians in May 1996 to determine the best management of acute asthma in the emergency department. The principal investigator of MARC, Dr. Carlos Camargo, formed the MARC Steering Committee to help guide this collaboration. The MARC Coordinating Center is based at the Massachusetts General Hospital (Boston, MA). Financial support for MARC has come from a variety of sources, including government, foundations, and industry. The NHLBI study used MARC databases.

DESIGN NARRATIVE:

Five representative aims were to: 1) characterize acute asthma management in urban emergency departments (EDs) and then compare current practice with that recommended in the 1997 national guidelines; 2) examine gender differences in acute asthma; 3) identify reasons why minority patients with asthma go to (and possibly prefer) the ED for their asthma care; 4) characterize important clinical subgroups, such as acute asthma among pregnant women and patients with sudden-onset severe acute asthma; and 5) examine risk factors for asthma hospitalization and for relapse after ED discharge.