TY - JOUR
T1 - Mobile health tools for the management of chronic respiratory diseases
AU - Sleurs, Kristien
AU - Seys, Sven F.
AU - Bousquet, Jean
AU - Fokkens, Wytske J.
AU - Gorris, Senne
AU - Pugin, Benoit
AU - Hellings, Peter W.
N1 - © 2019 EAACI and John Wiley and Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley and Sons Ltd.
PY - 2019/7
Y1 - 2019/7
N2 - Background: The market of mobile health (mHealth) technology is rapidly evolving, making new mobile technologies potentially available for healthcare systems. Patient empowerment through self-monitoring of symptoms, shared decision making with the physician, and easily accessible education are important features extending the reach of mHealth technology beyond traditional care. Methods: Two digital distribution platforms (Apple App Store and Google Play Store) were searched for currently available mobile applications (apps) for patients with chronic respiratory diseases (CRDs). A new index (score ranging from 0 to 10) was developed to assess the potential of apps as a tool to empower patients through mobile technology (based on self-monitoring, personalized feedback, and patient education app features). Results: One hundred and twelve apps were retained for analysis and could be classified in 5 categories: Asthma (n = 71), COPD (n = 15), Asthma and COPD (n = 15), Rhinitis and Asthma (n = 5), and Rhinosinusitis (n = 6). Eighty percent were developed by medical technology companies compared to 18% by medical doctors and 2% by pharmaceutical companies. Two-thirds of apps allow disease self-monitoring, whereas over half of apps provide patient feedback through graphs. Sixty percent of apps contain easily accessible patient education material. Only three percent of apps reach a score of ≥7 on the newly designed patient empowerment index. Conclusions: A variety of apps are available for patients with CRDs of which only few were developed by or jointly with medical doctors. The majority of these apps include self-monitoring tools, but only few also provide personalized feedback, which is needed to adopt these apps into daily care.
AB - Background: The market of mobile health (mHealth) technology is rapidly evolving, making new mobile technologies potentially available for healthcare systems. Patient empowerment through self-monitoring of symptoms, shared decision making with the physician, and easily accessible education are important features extending the reach of mHealth technology beyond traditional care. Methods: Two digital distribution platforms (Apple App Store and Google Play Store) were searched for currently available mobile applications (apps) for patients with chronic respiratory diseases (CRDs). A new index (score ranging from 0 to 10) was developed to assess the potential of apps as a tool to empower patients through mobile technology (based on self-monitoring, personalized feedback, and patient education app features). Results: One hundred and twelve apps were retained for analysis and could be classified in 5 categories: Asthma (n = 71), COPD (n = 15), Asthma and COPD (n = 15), Rhinitis and Asthma (n = 5), and Rhinosinusitis (n = 6). Eighty percent were developed by medical technology companies compared to 18% by medical doctors and 2% by pharmaceutical companies. Two-thirds of apps allow disease self-monitoring, whereas over half of apps provide patient feedback through graphs. Sixty percent of apps contain easily accessible patient education material. Only three percent of apps reach a score of ≥7 on the newly designed patient empowerment index. Conclusions: A variety of apps are available for patients with CRDs of which only few were developed by or jointly with medical doctors. The majority of these apps include self-monitoring tools, but only few also provide personalized feedback, which is needed to adopt these apps into daily care.
UR - https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?partnerID=HzOxMe3b&scp=85065197847&origin=inward
UR - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30644567
U2 - https://doi.org/10.1111/all.13720
DO - https://doi.org/10.1111/all.13720
M3 - Article
C2 - 30644567
SN - 0105-4538
VL - 74
SP - 1292
EP - 1306
JO - Allergy
JF - Allergy
IS - 7
ER -