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New app for use in anaphylaxis emergencies under development

ATLANTA — Researchers are developing an app to educate teenagers on epinephrine auto-injector use in anaphylaxis emergencies, as adolescents make up more than 50% of food allergy-related anaphylaxis fatalities, according to a presenter at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology.

“Adolescents take more risks than patients of other age groups, and in a 2006 study, 54% of food-allergic adolescents knowingly ingested unsafe foods. Adolescents also have their epinephrine with them less often than other age groups, especially at school events and events without parental supervision,” Joel L. Gallagher, MD, departments of pediatrics and urgent care, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, said during an oral abstract presentation. “Adolescence presents a particularly risky time for food-allergic individuals. This requires a multi-pronged approach to fully address these unique challenges.”

Gallagher explained the advantages an app has over traditional training methods.

“Currently, epinephrine auto-injector skills are taught using primarily didactic training methods; however, these skills wane over time. Therefore, novel training modalities adaptable to various audiences are needed.”

According to Gallagher, the app he and others are developing has two unique features: A decision tree support setup that asks a series of yes/no/I don’t know questions, with courses of action based on the user’s response; and videos with scenario-based training modules. The app also has educational and glossary sections to increase a user’s knowledge of epinephrine auto-injector use and food allergies in general.

A group of five teens were asked to take a survey on the app’s effectiveness. 

“All users thought the scenarios were easy to understand, and teens were also asked to gauge the measuring tools for health literacy and clarity,” Gallagher said. “All of the survey respondents strongly agreed or agreed that the app would help their friends and family learn about anaphylaxis and make them feel safe about having food allergies.”

Additional tests of the app are underway with a larger group of teenagers to test how quickly users can learn how to use auto-injectors as opposed to more traditional methods like reading a package’s label.

Gallagher said that although the initial app release would be geared towards teenagers, future plans call for making it available to other groups.

“We also want to focus on parents and caregivers, as well as teachers, because that’s another untapped population that could use some education [on food allergies], and then health care providers, including medical students and nurse practitioner students.”

The app’s features could be expanded as well, he said.

“We’re going to update it to include videos from Auvi-Q and Adrenaclick,” Gallagher said, noting the app currently uses EpiPen images. “We’re also working on doing enhanced personalized scenarios where you can put in patient’s allergens and their age and it will change the scenarios based on those two variables.”  

Gallagher said the app might be available to the public by this fall, and will be available on both IOS and Android platforms. – by Janel Miller

Reference: 

Gallagher, JL et al. Abstract 563. Presented at: American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology Annual Meeting; March 3-6, 2017; Atlanta.

Disclosure: Gallagher reports no relevant disclosures. Healio Family Medicine was unable to confirm the other researchers’ disclosures prior to publication.