Allergy and Asthma Care in the Mobile Phone Era

Abstract

Strategies to improve patients' adherence to treatment are essential to reduce the great health and economic burden of allergic rhinitis and asthma. Mobile phone applications (apps) for a better management of allergic diseases are growing in number, but their usefulness for doctors and patients is still debated. Controlled trials have investigated the feasibility, cost-effectiveness, security, and perspectives of the use of tele-medicine in the self-management of asthma. These studies focused on different tools or devices, such as SMS, telephone calls, automatic voice response system, mobile applications, speech recognition system, or cloud-computing systems. While some trials concluded that m-Health can improve asthma control and the patient's quality of life, others did not show any advantage in relation to usual care. The only controlled study on allergic rhinitis showed an improvement of adherence to treatment among tele-monitored patients compared to those managed with usual care. Most studies have also highlighted a few shortcomings and limitations of tele-medicine, mainly concerning security and cost-efficiency. The use of smartphones and apps for a personalized asthma and allergy care needs to be further evaluated and optimized before conclusions on its usefulness can be drawn.

Keywords: Allergic rhinitis; Allergy; Asthma; Mobile applications; Mobile health technology; Mobile phone.