Three new studies show how home monitoring technology – developed by leading digital health company NuvoAir – can be successfully used by both adults and children living with asthma. These findings pave the way for improved treatment and management opportunities for people with asthma.
The studies presented at the American Thoracic Society 2021 International Conference demonstrate how patients with asthma are able to produce high-quality lung function test results when using the NuvoAir Home platform. Patients also showed high adherence to home monitoring using the platform with impressive levels of satisfaction reported.
Asthma presents a considerable burden to patients, healthcare and society at large. Missed diagnosis, incorrect treatment and poor self-management of asthma contribute to an estimated $81.9 billion cost to society a year in the U.S., and £6.2 billion a year in the UK. While self-management is considered key to controlling asthma and staying out of the hospital, manual self-monitoring with written diaries is not popular with patients.
NuvoAir provides a human-led digital care management platform that allows people with respiratory conditions to monitor their condition from home and share results in real-time with their healthcare providers and NuvoAir Care Coordinators. The platform offers a patient app with connected devices, self-management content, care coordination services, and a healthcare provider portal. The provider portal enables healthcare teams to monitor patient data remotely and identify worsening respiratory health in real-time so that rapid interventions can be made. Connected devices include a Bluetooth-enabled spirometer to remotely monitor lung function; a sensor that attaches to asthma and COPD inhalers to monitor adherence and technique; a nighttime cough monitoring app and an activity tracker.
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The first study, from the University of Ioannina Medical School in Greece, aimed to evaluate how well patients using the NuvoAir Home platform could perform spirometry sessions at home, unsupervised by a health professional. The NuvoAir Home app provides tailored coaching and feedback to help users improve their spirometry technique for quality results. Ten adults with uncontrolled or partly controlled asthma were taught how to use the Bluetooth spirometer and app and were asked to perform daily spirometry sessions for one month before reducing sessions to once a week or when symptoms were worsening. Over an average of 180 days, it was found that 71% of the 1,235 unsupervised sessions performed from home were of acceptable quality based on the American Thoracic Society Guidelines (Grade A-C), with most of high quality (Grade A). The researchers concluded that adults with asthma are able to perform quality spirometry at home over long periods of time, supporting self-management and potentially optimizing care.
A second study from London’s Royal Brompton Hospital addressed similar questions in children with asthma, looking at both quality of results and adherence to home spirometry with the platform. In this study, data from 39 children with asthma, gathered over a 90-day period, was reviewed. It was found that during the last 30 days of home monitoring, the proportion of users performing acceptable quality tests was 76.9%, compared to 50.4% in the first 30 days, indicating that children with asthma can also perform quality unsupervised spirometry at home using the NuvoAir Home platform and that the tailored in-app coaching leads to an improvement of technique over a short period of time. In addition, adherence to home spirometry with the NuvoAir platform was reported to be high with this patient group.
The third study, by the Royal Brompton Hospital, aimed to assess the acceptability of NuvoAir Home spirometry with children. A questionnaire was completed by 18 children with unstable asthma or their parents/carers regarding their experience and views on the NuvoAir platform. Most had been using NuvoAir for around 200 days. Respondents rated home monitoring with the platform highly with 92.3% likely to continue using NuvoAir Home. In addition, 78.6% found it reassuring to monitor lung function with the platform and around 70% said they felt the technology helped them to spot a deterioration of their condition. Furthermore, over 80% reported it was easy to set up and use and almost 85% of those completing the survey said they would likely recommend NuvoAir Home to others.
NuvoAir’s CEO Lorenzo Consoli shared, “Two fundamental aspects of any successful digital health tool are whether it can be used effectively by patients at home and whether patients want to use it on a long-term basis. We welcome these study findings that help show how NuvoAir can empower people with asthma to spot deteriorations and better manage their condition from home while allowing clinical teams to monitor their progress from a distance.”
Published clinical evidence and peer-reviewed studies demonstrating NuvoAir’s clinical impact, technological validity, and high patient satisfaction with patients across respiratory conditions can be found on NuvoAir’s website.
