eAsthma Tracker, a new app developed allows parents and doctors to monitor a child's asthma status in real time and help manage the disease by improving the quality of life, reveals a new study. The findings of the study are published in the journal Pediatrics.
When families monitored symptoms with eAsthma Tracker and adjusted care accordingly, children had better asthma control and made fewer visits to the emergency department. Using the app also meant that children missed fewer days of school, and parents took fewer days off work, improving their quality of life.
Asthma
It''s a lung condition characterized by inflammation of the bronchi and constriction of the airways that result in coughing, wheezing or breathlessness. Allergy and other airway irritants can trigger it
Advertisement
‘New self-monitoring app known as eAsthma Tracker can help children with asthma to broadly improve their quality of life and allow their providers to give optimal care during an emergency asthma attack.’
Read More..
Tweet it Now
Read More..
"It's exciting to see that using an effective app can not only help improve the lives of children with asthma and their parents but also allow their providers to give optimal care," says the study's lead author and University of Utah Health professor of pediatrics Flory Nkoy, MD, MS, MPH. He and his team created the app and carried out the research along with collaborators at Intermountain Healthcare and Parent Partners in Salt Lake City.
Despite effective treatments, keeping asthma in check can be particularly tricky. An attack can come seemingly without warning and up to 40 percent of children hospitalized with asthma wind up back in the hospital within a year. A major contributing factor is that signs that precede an attack often go unnoticed.
![Tests for Asthma]( "Tests for Asthma")
Do you find it difficult to breathe especially during the cold weather? You may need to get tested for asthma, a respiratory condition that is induced by allergies.
Scientists and physicians at U of U Health designed eAsthma Tracker as a way to continually monitor a child's disease. Asthma care is typically reactive, focusing on treating recurrent attacks, says the study's senior author and U of U Health hospitalist Bryan Stone, MD, MS. While most children with asthma show signs days to weeks before an attack, parents can easily miss these changes. eAsthma Tracker allows for monitoring at home, opening an opportunity to observe worsening signs and intervene in time to prevent a flare-up.
A unique feature of the app is that it sends parents and doctors data in real-time, and triggers an automated alert when a child's asthma is acting up. When that happens, the app prompts parents to make an appointment with the child's doctor. A doctor receiving an alert may decide to call parents to determine how to address the issue proactively.
"Parents love the idea that they can see how their child is doing and that their doctor is on the other end of the app and working with them," says Stone.
Families who use eAsthma Tracker fill out a brief weekly online survey based on a standard assessment called the Asthma Control Test. The app assigns a score reflecting whether asthma is impeding the child's daily activities and how often they're using medication to control symptoms. It then issues recommendations dependent on being categorized as severe (red zone), under control (green zone) or approaching severe (yellow zone).
More than 300 children and parents at 11 clinics throughout Utah enrolled in the study designed to determine whether the app improved patient outcomes. Researchers found that children who used the app: * improved their asthma control * made significantly fewer visits to the emergency department and hospital * significantly reduced oral steroid use (a surrogate measure for asthma attacks), * missed 60% fewer days of school, and * had an improved quality of life. Also, their parents missed 70% fewer days of work.
Children and parents showed improvements in all measurements three months after starting to use the app, and the benefits persisted 12 months later.
The investigators also compared outcomes from children who used eAsthma Tracker with outcomes from children who did not use the app. Results from this part of the study showed that children who used the app: * made 60% fewer visits to the emergency department and hospital, and * had a 35% reduced use of oral steroids.
The main limitation of the study was the lack of a control group pulled from the same clinics that study participants were recruited from. Although the design of this part of the research was not optimal, the reasoning behind the omission was intentional. Based on promising results from a pilot investigation, the parent and community stakeholders that helped design the research recommended against withholding the app from willing participants.
Nkoy and Stone are now working with the university's Center for Technology & Venture Commercialization to conduct market validation and develop a commercialization strategy to expand to other hospital systems.
"We are optimistic that spread of eAsthma Tracker can significantly improve asthma care and reduce asthma-related healthcare costs," says Nkoy.
Source: Eurekalert
Tests for Asthma
Do you find it difficult to breathe especially during the cold weather? You may need to get tested for asthma, a respiratory condition that is induced by allergies.
Advertisement
Scientists and physicians at U of U Health designed eAsthma Tracker as a way to continually monitor a child's disease. Asthma care is typically reactive, focusing on treating recurrent attacks, says the study's senior author and U of U Health hospitalist Bryan Stone, MD, MS. While most children with asthma show signs days to weeks before an attack, parents can easily miss these changes. eAsthma Tracker allows for monitoring at home, opening an opportunity to observe worsening signs and intervene in time to prevent a flare-up.
A unique feature of the app is that it sends parents and doctors data in real-time, and triggers an automated alert when a child's asthma is acting up. When that happens, the app prompts parents to make an appointment with the child's doctor. A doctor receiving an alert may decide to call parents to determine how to address the issue proactively.
"Parents love the idea that they can see how their child is doing and that their doctor is on the other end of the app and working with them," says Stone.
Families who use eAsthma Tracker fill out a brief weekly online survey based on a standard assessment called the Asthma Control Test. The app assigns a score reflecting whether asthma is impeding the child's daily activities and how often they're using medication to control symptoms. It then issues recommendations dependent on being categorized as severe (red zone), under control (green zone) or approaching severe (yellow zone).
More than 300 children and parents at 11 clinics throughout Utah enrolled in the study designed to determine whether the app improved patient outcomes. Researchers found that children who used the app: * improved their asthma control * made significantly fewer visits to the emergency department and hospital * significantly reduced oral steroid use (a surrogate measure for asthma attacks), * missed 60% fewer days of school, and * had an improved quality of life. Also, their parents missed 70% fewer days of work.
Children and parents showed improvements in all measurements three months after starting to use the app, and the benefits persisted 12 months later.
The investigators also compared outcomes from children who used eAsthma Tracker with outcomes from children who did not use the app. Results from this part of the study showed that children who used the app: * made 60% fewer visits to the emergency department and hospital, and * had a 35% reduced use of oral steroids.
The main limitation of the study was the lack of a control group pulled from the same clinics that study participants were recruited from. Although the design of this part of the research was not optimal, the reasoning behind the omission was intentional. Based on promising results from a pilot investigation, the parent and community stakeholders that helped design the research recommended against withholding the app from willing participants.
Nkoy and Stone are now working with the university's Center for Technology & Venture Commercialization to conduct market validation and develop a commercialization strategy to expand to other hospital systems.
"We are optimistic that spread of eAsthma Tracker can significantly improve asthma care and reduce asthma-related healthcare costs," says Nkoy.
Source: Eurekalert
Millions of Children Develop Asthma Due to Traffic Pollution
Traffic pollution increases the risk of asthma in children in urban areas. Nearly 4 million children across the world develop asthma each year as a result of inhaling nitrogen dioxide resulting from air and traffic pollution.
Advertisement
Advertisement
|
Advertisement
Recommended Reading
Latest Respiratory Disease News
A new artificial intelligence-enabled chest imaging technology performs a deep characterization of the pulmonary vasculature to detect pulmonary (arterial) hypertension.
The global climate crisis is stimulating heat waves to become more frequent causing distress to people with asthma, say experts.
A new study reveals vitamin D3 supplements have encouraging effects for asthma patients. Vitamin D has a positive effect on immune response.
Hospitalization and mortality rates are on the higher side in First Nations communities than comparable populations.
To end TB by 2030, we need to decrease tuberculosis risk factors and reduce NCDs, among other vital steps to strengthen health systems.