Involving patients to develop a mobile system to self-manage asthma

Brussels, 5 May 2015 / WORLD ASTHMA DAY – Despite the wide availability of asthma therapies, many people with asthma still experience lots of symptoms impacting significantly on their quality of life. In line with this year’s World Asthma Day theme “You can control your asthma”, myAirCoach, a leading pan-European project is recruiting patients to develop a monitoring device which is integrated with mobile technology to help people with asthma to take the right steps to stay on top of their condition and reduce their risk of an asthma attack. There are many external factors which can impact an individual’s ability to manage their asthma.

MyAirCoach will use a network of sensors to collect data about a person’s symptoms, inflammation inside the airways and the environment. The data will be transferred to a mobile device for analysis and will feed into a personalized digital model of each individual’s asthma, supporting patients to better manage their condition and optimise their treatment. “This is a really innovative use of mobile technology and has the potential to make a big difference to people with asthma to produce a meaningful tool for patients”, says Breda Flood, President of the European Federation of Allergies and Airways Diseases Patients’ Associations.

Given that asthma needs individualised attention, myAirCoach will put patients at the centre of their asthma management. The project has set up an Advisory Patient Forum (APF) that will guide researchers to ensure that the resulting self-management system is relevant to patient needs. Patient representatives from EFA and Asthma UK will inform the design of myAirCoach through focus groups and surveys to make sure it is useful to patients in the real world.

If you have asthma and wish to be one of the patient experts helping to design a European project on asthma management, please email [email protected]. You will receive updates on the consultations and activities that will take place under myAirCoach project.

Funded by the EU Programme for Research and Innovation Horizon 2020, myAirCoach represents a great opportunity to demonstrate the wider benefits of involving patients in the development of new technologies to improve healthcare.

For more information please contact: EFA Communications Manager [email protected] +32 (0) 2 227 27 20

Link to EFA press release