Towards Digital Management of Paediatric Asthma

This pilot study aims to explore whether a digital approach to managing childhood asthma using connected inhalers and video consultations triggered by alerts from these devices - could work as well as standard in-person care. The connected inhalers track when children use their daily prevention medication and their rescue medication for asthma symptoms. If a child misses several days of prevention medication or uses their rescue inhaler frequently, their doctor receives an alert and can schedule a video consultation to adjust their treatment. Fifty children aged 4-12 years with asthma will participate for 8 months, with half using this digital system and half receiving usual care. The study will measure whether this new approach is practical and acceptable to families and doctors, and will look at its effects on asthma control, quality of life, and healthcare use. The results will help design a larger study to fully test if this digital approach could improve asthma care for children.