MyAirCoach project seeked to create a patient centered mHeatlh tool to support self-management approaches for asthma. The project has enabled healthcare professionals to supervise the patients’ condition in an efficiently way without disturbing patients’ privacy. MyAirCoach final system is capable of stimulating and increasing the asthma self-management awareness and can serve as an exchange platform for patients. MyAirCoach has proposed a novel mHealth tool based on a wireless body sensor network that could be the core element of a new approach to monitor and support asthma patients. The system enables communication in two senses: 1) to the healthcare professional by observing patients' adherence to medical treatment through physiological and environmental variables and 2) to the patient, as it can provide them with personalized prediction to manage and reduce the risk of asthma exacerbation.
The project is expected to demonstrate significant impact in various domains ranging from the patients themselves, healthcare professionals, associations and the pharmaceutical companies. At a glance:
- Patients will receive optimal strategies to treat their asthma based on their own models, the estimated disease progression and their evolution, all by their doctor. Through MyAirCoach community, they will also be able to communicate with other patients and exchange their experience to reduce the burden of any social difficulties that might be provoked by asthma.
- The families of the patients will be better informed about the condition of their loved ones and will be able to secure accurate information about asthma and the proper use of medication.
- Clinicians and practitioners will be equipped with new tools and components that will provide a detailed and accurate picture of the patient’s condition outside the clinic. Analytical tools will support their decisions based on the estimates of every patient asthma evolution.
- Doctors experienced and coupled with automated analysis tools, will provide the possibility to provide real time feedback based on the current condition of the patient.
-Pharmaceutical companies will directly evaluate their new medicines using the modelling approaches developed under myAirCoach project.
- Healthcare systems will see the cost of asthma reduced in the long term, based on the optimization of treatments, the increased knowledge of patients and the adherence to their medication schedule.
An extensive assessment of the final system has proven the usability of the final infrastructure. The myAirCoach system seems to be acceptable by the end-users, whereas it exhibits a clinically relevant and statistically significant improvement in asthma control and severe asthma exacerbations, based on the evaluation campaigns results. The system can be further enhanced based on the comments of the end-users involved in real-life scenarios.