In this month’s Pediatrics, researchers share their experiences with a web and mobile-web application that supports children and families in monitoring asthma symptoms.
The electronic-Asthma Tracker (e-AT) utilizes a modified version of the validated asthma control test (ACT)1,2 to assess control of symptoms while providing recommendations for interventions based on an individual’s degree of symptom control.
The clever approach of the e-AT interface allows patients and families to visualize a timeline of asthma control scores and receive alerts from their primary care provider, as well as reminders to take controller medications. After development of the e-AT, the question remained: does it work in a real world setting? In this study, Nkoy et. al. set out to determine just that.
Overall, the data suggested that the e-AT platform can improve asthma control in pediatric patients and reduce the utilization of emergency and hospital services as well as oral corticosteroid use. Equally important are the findings that these improvements happen early after use of the e-AT, with the effects sustained for at least a year. Such an early payoff of the e-AT could perhaps justify the capital necessary to implement this tool in an ambulatory setting.
