SMS-Web eAAP group for Asthma (asthma Trial)

Objectives: The disease being studied is asthma. The main objective of this study is to assess the feasibility of the recruitment goals and also the logistical issues related to use of tele-health technology in developing electronic asthma action plan (eAAP) and communicate with asthma patients in a time period of 24 months. The goals are: 1) enable asthma patients to self-manage their asthma symptoms. The secondary, 2) help care providers to intervene appropriately based on the patient's health status. The secondary objective is to explore the cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness of the proposed technology. Our research group proposes to complete a feasibility study, with an interim analysis for a formal power calculation and then acquire ethics to report these results and study design with anticipated publication prior to proceeding with a full randomized controlled trial to assess the efficacy of this intervention. The outcome measure will be assessed and data will be presented in a 24-month time frame. Aims and goals: The main aim of our proposed study is to assist asthma patients to practice asthma self-management at home that will eventually enable them to control their asthma, and specifically, prevent asthma exacerbation. Therefore, the ultimate goal of our proposed study is to improve patient health outcome via enhancing patient-physician interaction and using a more practical asthma action plan model (eAAP) that could be followed easily by the patient and their doctor. Our hypothesis is that asthma patients who have access to the electronic online action plan complimented by weekly text messages to reinforce adherence will have a reduced rate of asthma exacerbation. We further hypothesize that these subjects will have an improvement in secondary measures including quality of life, better asthma control and patient satisfaction. We also anticipate that such an approach in asthma management will be cost-effective as outlined below.