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| Breathing easy | |
| An asthma attack can come at any time and there is
no easy way to predict how bad it will be. Many sufferers keep a hand-written,
twice-daily record of their breathing. Once every 12 weeks they take this record
to their doctor and have their treatment adjusted based on the results. It is not
the best way to treat a condition that now affects some 3.4 million people in the
UK and is an increasingly serious problem across Europe. |
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But what if sufferers could be in touch with their doctor every time a bad attack seemed imminent and get immediate advice on how to prevent it? Mobile technology is making that possible for the first time. We are working on a one-year trial with 100 asthma sufferers aged between 12 and 55 in the Thames Valley, where the incidence of asthma is higher than in any other part of the UK. Each patient is given an O2 xda combined phone and mobile computer fitted with an electronic peak flow meter and containing reporting and analysis software. When they breathe into the meter, the xda automatically records their condition and the results are transmitted immediately to a computer that charts them against expected trends. Should any readings cause concern their doctor can be notified and can instantly advise them on how to adjust their treatment or if a visit to the surgery is required. The project is being run with e-San Limited, a spin off company from the Department of Engineering Science at Oxford University, which is exploring how mobiles can improve the self-monitoring and self-management of chronic illnesses. Early results from the trial show that patients are recording their condition more accurately, a key step in pre-empting and preventing acute attacks. And there could well be benefits in the treatment of other ailments, like hypertension and diabetes, where patients also take care of their own treatment. This project will provide us with useful experience for developing other wireless applications to support health related services. |
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The asthma trial - focussing on 100 asthma sufferers in the Thames Valley region - should not only improve treatment of the illness but also provide benefits for individual doctors and the National Health Service.
If successful, there will be fewer emergency hospitalisations and call-outs,
saving time and money.
Professor Lionel Tarassenko of Oxford University said: "We believe the e-San/xda solution will ensure better management of the condition. Because of its ease of use, the automatic sending of readings allow real time monitoring of the condition and the filtering of information to ensure that the GP is alerted only to readings that need to be acted upon. The ability to generate automatic messages to patients (including text messages) will also save time and resources for hard-pressed GPs." Peter Erskine, CEO of mmO2, said: "This is an exciting application of mobile technology to a serious health issue that affects communities across Europe and particularly in the UK. We welcome the chance to prove that such technology can make a real difference to people's lives. We are especially pleased to offer support to the trial in the Thames Valley region as this is where many of our employees are based." |
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| PDF: THE REPORT > |
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