Projectdetails

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The development and evaluation of a smart inhaler in asthma patients

Keywords:
asthma

Researchers:
Dr. J.W.H. Kocks
drs. E. Metting
drs. S.J. van de Hei

Nature of the research:
Clustered randomized controlled trial

Fields of study:
GP medicine pulmonology

Background / introduction
Asthma affects more than 300 million adults and children worldwide. Despite the availability of effective treatment, many patients with asthma remain inadequately controlled. Suboptimal control is associated with an increased risk for exacerbations, more health care utilization and a decrease in quality of life. Furthermore, it leads to an increased economic burden. Important reasons for suboptimal control are either inadequate adherence or incorrect inhaler use. This is often the result of forgetfulness, or the failure to understand the specifics of the regimen or the necessity for adherence.
Smart inhalers record and monitor inhaler use. Usage data can be uploaded to a smartphone application via a Bluetooth connection. Patients receive personalized reminders and feedback about their medication use via their smartphone and are able to monitor their asthma symptoms on a daily basis within the application. Healthcare professionals also are able to view the adherence data of their patients. Therefore, smart inhalers could help asthma patients to increase their adherence and to keep their condition under control. The effectiveness of a smart inhaler on medication adherence and asthma control will be investigated in a clustered randomized controlled trial in General Practices in the area of Groningen. Furthermore, qualitative research on the acceptability and usability of the smart inhaler will be conducted.
Research question / problem definition
The development and evaluation of a smart inhaler in asthma patients
Workplan
You will help preparing and conducting the research project. Tasks might be: inclusion of health care professionals and patients, instructing and guiding patients when first using the application, follow-up visits with patients by phone, evaluation of baseline data, attending project group meetings, performing a feasibility analysis (what problems do we face?)
References
Global Initiative for Asthma. Global Strategy for Asthma Management and Prevention 2018, www.ginasthma.org
Juliet M Foster, Tim Usherwood, Lorraine Smith, et al. Inhaler reminders improve adherence with controller treatment in primary care patients with asthma. Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology 2014.
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