Tuesday, January 19, 2021
Today Medical Delta National eHealth Living Lab (NeLL) is launching an innovative application for people with asthma: the Asthma app. Through this app, users gain insight into how they use their short-acting bronchodilators, what the symptoms of the upper and lower airways are and what the (possible) asthma triggers are.
In addition, the user will find background information about the condition and the medication. The app also signals excessive use of the emergency medication (SABAs). This is important because if the user frequently reaches for this medication (three or more inhalations per week), it indicates insufficient monitoring.
Scientific research [1, 2] shows that many people with asthma often use the short-acting bronchodilators, which is understandable because it quickly helps with acute complaints. However, the short-acting bronchodilator does not address the inflammation that underlies the lung disease. Overuse of SABA has been associated in studies with an increased risk of asthma lung attacks and more hospital admissions due to severe lung attacks [3, 4].
The team that developed this application, consisting of researchers affiliated with NeLL / LUMC, assumes that by providing more insight into the course of their asthma, people with asthma can learn more about the condition. This improves the understanding about what causes their shortness of breath and when they have to alarm their practioner.
In the coming year, NeLL will conduct scientific research among the users of the app by looking at how the application is used, how the user experiences the app and how effective the app is. This research is carried out over a period of one year and will periodically collect experiences.
Read more here.
The Asthma app can be downloaded from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
[1] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23888347/
[2] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31981105/
