(COLUMBUS, Ohio) – A team of doctors and experts have developed the first app supported by a peer-reviewed pilot study and designed to help children and teens with asthma. AsthmaCare was created in an attempt to help young asthma patients and their parents better manage their condition and avoid trips to the emergency department.
“It’s hard for anybody to remember to take medications every day, especially when they’re feeling well which is often the case with asthma, so we wanted to create something to help people better self-manage their condition,” said David Stukus, MD, who helped develop the app with colleagues at Nationwide Children’s Hospital.
About every 20 seconds someone is rushed to an emergency department in the U.S. to be treated for asthma, half the time it’s a child. “Asthma can be managed effectively, as long as children stay on a schedule with their medicines and have a plan in place when symptoms occur,” said Stukus. “That’s what this app is designed to do.”
In an initial study, all patients used the app every day and 81 percent of the time it was used more than once a day. The app sends reminders to take medications, allows patients to create and store an emergency plan, has a symptom diary and even links to area pollen stations to make patients aware of allergen levels in the air.
