April 2015
By Tom Stibolt, MD, Mobile Musings Column Editor
A recent survey was performed in the US that included 500 health care professionals and 1,000 health app users. The survey found that 86 percent of health care professionals believe that health apps will increase their knowledge of patients’ conditions, and 96 percent of users think that health apps help to improve their quality of life. Seventy- two percent of health care professionals believe that health apps will encourage patients to take more responsibility for their health.
The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Weill Cornell Medical College and LifeMap Solutions have already developed the Asthma Health app using ResearchKit–a research tool developed by Apple as part of HealthKit. As noted in last month’s Mobile Musings, HealthKit allows users to collect and share information from various apps in one central location.
The Asthma Health app is currently provided as part of the Asthma Mobile Health study led by Yu-Feng Yvonne Chan, MD, PhD, director of personalized medicine and digital health at Mount Sinai. The study will explore how researchers can conduct clinical studies at an unprecedented scale by unshackling science from brick-and-mortar constraints.
With the app, users can gain greater insight into their asthma. It can provide personalized reminders to take prescribed medications track daytime and nighttime symptoms, identify triggers, report on air quality, and record activities to help users take charge of their health.
The researchers aim to help patients experience less asthma-related distress with better symptom control, improved quality of life, and fewer unexpected medical visits.
The app also provides tools to learn proper inhaler technique and physician-approved videos for tips on effective asthma management which can be watched on the device.
To download the app, users must agree to be part of the study, be at least 18 years of age, have asthma confirmed by a doctor, be prescribed medication for asthma, and be a resident of the United States.
Editor’s note: The ATS does not endorse any of the programs or products mentioned in this column.
