Remote monitoring program predicts asthma exacerbations

Key takeaways:

• The program includes a spirometer, oximeter, mobile app and virtual platform.
• Patients use the spirometer at home and send data to their provider.
• Alerts indicate when the patient may be in distress.

SAN DIEGO — A remote monitoring program predicted when patients with asthma would experience distress, according to a poster presented at the 2025 American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology/World Allergy Organization Joint Congress.

“Our data are accurately predicting exacerbations for these patients, which helps them reduce [ED] visits and ultimately the cost of health care,” Kretee Arora, MBBS, MS, a clinical lead at Keva Health at the time of the study, told Healio.

The program includes an FDA-approved, Bluetooth-enabled spirometer that captures up to 25 lung functions and block symmetry readings as well as an oximeter. It also includes Keva Health’s KevaTalk mobile app and Keva365 virtual care platform.

Keva Health provides virtual training for patients, who then use the spirometer and oximeter between visits with their provider. These devices then send data to the app and to the virtual care platform, which providers can access.

“The patient can also enter their own data, like, how are they feeling that day?” Arora said. “All of these data have been helping providers to see how the patient is doing when they visit them next, so they can make informed decisions on how to change that treatment.”

The system also sends “red” alerts to providers when readings fall outside of normal limits and “yellow” alerts when there are low readings for 2 to 3 consecutive days.

“A lot of our patients also tell us that they had an exacerbation, and it was reported early, so their provider contacted them,” Arora said. “The provider’s office contacted them when they really needed it.”

Keva Health’s retrospective 2-year study comprised 25 patients (mean age, 59.2 years; 68% female) who generated 53 alerts while using the program.

The researchers used logistic regression to analyze age, gender, FEV₁, peak flow, oxygen saturation, biologics use, insurance type and self-check-ins in relation to exacerbations for alert days and for the 2 days both before and after these alerts.

Also, the researchers used predictive models to validate how significant these variables were in predicting exacerbations.

“It’s predictive AI technology,” Arora said.

Risks for asthma exacerbations were significantly higher for older patients (OR = 18.9; P < .05) and significantly lower for patients with elevated FEV₁ (OR = 0.007; P < .05).

One model that focused on high-risk cases accurately predicted 88.7% of the alerts (sensitivity = 95.8%; area under the curve = 0.9). Another model that focused on low-risk cases accurately predicted 92.5% of the alerts (sensitivity = 95.3%; AUC = 0.77). Both models missed one of the 53 alerts.

Arora also touted the flexibility of the system, which patients can use whenever they want, encouraging more usage that generates more data for providers.

“There is no restriction on that. If they want to use it, it depends on their schedule,” she said. “If they are working, they can do it in the morning or in the evening.”

Patients rapidly took to the program as well, Arora said.

“As with any new technology, they were a little hesitant,” she said. “But when they started using it, and they started seeing the results, we had a good compliance rate.”

Providers also were satisfied based on feedback that Keva Health has received, Arora continued.

“When patients visit them next, they have all the information from in between the two visits, which really helps them to make informed decisions about what to do with the treatment that the patient has been given,” she said.

Based on these findings, the researchers said that the remote monitoring program enables valuable and personalized care for patients with low-risk and high-risk asthma, with the potential for improving outcomes and optimizing treatment.

Although this model was created for patients with asthma, Arora said, it also can be applied to other chronic diseases.

“We have COPD patients on board,” she said. “We have [interstitial lung disease] patients on board.”

Next, Keva Health will expand the research.

“Since it’s a small sample set of patients, we want to conduct studies with more patients and show how it can provide a continuum of care,” Arora said.

For more information:

Jyotsna Mehta, MS, CEO and founder of Keva Health, can be reached at jyotsna@kevahealth.com.