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Mobile app alerts allergists when patients with asthma need assistance

Data from a case study demonstrate a cell phone application effectively logged asthma symptom severity, tracked medication adherence and communicated the information back to a patient’s primary doctor.

“Asthma Ally is unique in that when the person with asthma loads the app, they connect to their allergist’s office through a doctor portal,” Richard W. Lucas, PhD, department of forest ecology and management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, said in a press release. “In the case of the patient in the study, the remote delivery of his symptom data alerted clinic staff to his poor asthma control. They brought him into the office, and following the intervention, his asthma symptoms began to improve.”

Lucas and colleagues conducted a case study of an adult male aged 42 years with asthma and used the mobile app to track his symptoms.

The physician’s portal of Asthma Ally (OSIA Medical) enables remote communication of patient-entered symptom data and alerts staff to a decreasing trend and poor asthma control.

According to the report, the patient’s asthma severity worsened around July 5 when particulate matter with a diameter ≤ 2.5µm (PM2.5) was notably high. Knowing how sensitive the patient was to PM2.5, clinic staff reached out to offer an intervention on July 15.

Following the intervention, the patient’s asthma severity improved, although there were still considerably high concentrations of PM2.5.

Richard Hendershot, MD, FACAAI, of Intermountain Health Care in Utah, and study researcher, said the mobile app could be vastly beneficial for people with asthma.

“One of the main benefits to an app like this is that for people with a chronic condition like asthma, it helps keep an eye out for changes that might indicate there’s a problem,” he said in the release. “If those suffering from asthma, along with their allergist, can address a problem while it’s still readily controlled, they might lessen the chance of an urgent care visit, or hospitalization.”

Disclosure: Lucas reports no relevant financial disclosures. Please see the full study for a list of all other authors’ relevant financial disclosures.