Grant: CIHR Fellowship

Asthma affects 7.8% of Canadians, leads to serious respiratory symptoms, and could cost our health system $4.2 billion per year by 2030. Health-related smartphone apps can provide patients with personalized health information anytime and anywhere, allowing them to better manage diseases like asthma. Health providers can also benefit from electronic tools to improve the efficiency and quality of asthma care. Together, patients and health care providers could use a smartphone app to engage in discussions about asthma medication choices. We previously built the Electronic Asthma Management System (eAMS). The system required patients to complete a questionnaire about their asthma on a tablet device in the waiting room and this information was processed and transmitted to their doctor's computer. Our pilot study of this tool showed that it does improve care, however less than one third of patients completed the tablet questionnaire. We are now improving the system by developing and testing an asthma care app that will: 1) allow patients to complete the questionnaire on their own devices; and 2) provide a tool that will help patients and doctors to make shared decisions about medication choices. We will integrate this app with the eAMS such that both systems share all data. This study aims to test the updated system to see if and how patients and doctors actually use it, if they are satisfied with it, and how it affects the care that they receive. If successful, our unique approach may be a model for the design of similar technologies for the care of other chronic diseases. Ultimately, we will seek to implement our app and asthma care system across Canada to improve not only the way that healthcare is delivered, but also the everyday health of Canada's 2.4 million asthma sufferers.