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Review
. 2024 Sep 3:5:1451768.
doi: 10.3389/falgy.2024.1451768. eCollection 2024.

Asthma management in the digital age

Ilan Y Bocian  1 , Andrew R Chin  1 , Alyssa Rodriguez  1 , William Collins  1 , Sayantani B Sindher  1 , R Sharon Chinthrajah  1
Affiliations
Review

Asthma management in the digital age

Ilan Y Bocian et al. Front Allergy. .

Abstract

Asthma affects 25 million people in the United States, and its prevalence is increasing. Access to care and adherence to prescribed asthma-treatment programs remain the principal formidable challenges for asthma management. Telemedicine offers substantial opportunities for improved asthma care of patients across the full range of socioeconomic strata. Ever-improving digital tools for asthma assessment and treatment are key components of telemedicine platforms for asthma management. These include a variety of remote patient-monitoring devices, digital inhaler systems, and mobile-health applications that facilitate ongoing assessment and adherence to treatment protocols. Digital tools for monitoring treatment focus on tracking medication use, inhalation technique, and physiological markers such as peak-flow rate and pulse-oximetry. Telemedicine visits allow for elements of assessment via video, approximating or duplicating many aspects of in-person visits, such as evaluating a patient's general appearance, breathing effort, and cough. Challenges remain in ensuring equitable access to these technologies, especially in rural and low-income areas, and in maintaining patient privacy and data security in digital platforms.

Keywords: asthma; digital tools; healthcare accessibility; remote patient monitoring; telemedicine.

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Conflict of interest statement

RSC receives grant support from the Consortium for Food Allergy Research (CoFAR), National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID), Food Allergy Research & Education (FARE), and is an advisory board member for Alladapt Immunotherapeutics, Novartis, Intrommune Therapeutics, Phylaxis, and Genentech. SS reports grants from NIH, Regeneron, DBV Technologies, Aimmune, Novartis, CoFAR, and FARE. She is an Advisory member at Genentech and DBV Technologies. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interes.

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