Research Policy and Practice Briefs
Centre evidence and recommendations
Where next for digital tools in asthma care?
Given the potential of digital health to support asthma care, we need to increase the pace and scale of research and innovation, including evaluating implementation of evidence-based digital tools into standard clinical practice. Our research policy and practice brief on digital tools for asthma care gives recommendations based on evidence from the Centre for people with asthma, policy makers, healthcare professionals and asthma researchers.
Read the evidence in our Research Policy and Practice Brief
Published: April 2023
Contributors: Chan A1, Davies G2, De Simoni A3, Fletcher M4, Griffiths CJ3, Jankowska C4, Kinley E4, McKinstry B4, Pinnock H4, Ryan D4, Sheikh A4, Steed E3, Taylor S3 Uzzaman N1.
1University College London, 2Swansea University, 3Queen Mary University of London, 4University of Edinburgh.
ISBN 978-1-912669-57-8
Our key recommendations for:
We are asking people with asthma to do two things:
- Speak to your GP, Respiratory nurse or pharmacist about the different digital options available for asthma, that could help you better manage your condition
- If you have a preference, ask your GP practice if a telephone or video consultation could be appropriate to review your asthma
We are asking policy makers to:
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Demand that digital tool developers involve people with asthma at every stage of the design and creation process, along with input from healthcare professionals wherever possible.
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Recommend that digital innovations are tested, trialled and optimised within the NHS, at a pace that technology integrates with other aspects of care provision and does not become outdated prior to adoption.
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Introduce processes to enable developers and innovators to more rapidly move through the translation landscape, enabling them to create sufficient evidence to take their digital tools from pilots to implementation at pace and scale
We are asking healthcare professionals who provide care for people with asthma to:
- Become aware of digital tools that have been evaluated and have shown improvement in asthma outcomes through professional development training and clinical guidelines
- Recommend funded evidence-based digital tools to patients that can complement standard care and support self-management
- Offer alternative methods of regular asthma reviews using telephone or video, if appropriate
We are asking asthma researchers to:
- Make sure that people with asthma are involved at all stages of research studies, including driving new ideas for research
- Collaborate with digital technology innovators to combine new and existing research and evaluation methods
- Collaborate with health technology companies and work with healthcare regulators to support implementation into practice
Watch our webinar: Where next for digital tools in asthma care?
On the 8th June 2023, we hosted a webinar discussing the vast array of digital tools for asthma. Monica Fletcher OBE, our Advocacy Lead chaired the discussion with our panelists:
- Sue Lang - an asthma patient who has different methods of managing her condition, including speaking to her GP in remote consultations
- Bill Day - a volunteer lead of the Asthma UK Centre for Applied Research's Patient and Public Involvement team who also has asthma
- Professor Hilary Pinnock - a practicing GP and asthma researcher, who has seen the benefits of digital tools for asthma care, both for patients and for healthcare practitioners
- Naomi Bennett-Steele - Innovation Partnerships Manager at Asthma + Lung UK who is focused on ensuring that the respiratory community is designing ‘with’ rather than just ‘for’ patients in respiratory research, product development and service design.
Please note: The panelists are not visible during the conversation in this video.