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Featured Article| Volume 19, ISSUE 5, 104500, May 2023

Improving Pediatric Asthma Care Through Asthma Apps: A Narrative Review

      Highlights

      • Asthma guidelines recommend the use of telehealth interventions as part of evidence-based asthma care.
      • Of the available telehealth interventions for asthma, asthma apps are the most promising intervention.
      • Asthma apps have the potential to improve asthma control, increase medication adherence, and decrease asthma exacerbations in patients with persistent asthma.
      • Providers can vet asthma apps and other medical apps by using the Mobile Application Rating Scale app rating scale and determining whether the app uses behavior change techniques.

      Abstract

      Asthma is the most common chronic disease of childhood. Clinicians frequently do not adhere to clinical practice guidelines for the management of asthma, leading to emergency department visits, hospitalizations, missed school days, and missed work for parents and caregivers. Incorporating telehealth interventions into asthma management improves patient outcomes. Of the available telehealth interventions, pediatric-specific asthma apps show the most promise for improving patient outcomes. Asthma apps have been shown to improve asthma control, increase adherence to medications, and reduce asthma exacerbations. Providers can easily vet asthma apps by using the Mobile Application Rating Scale and determine the app’s use of behavioral change techniques.

      Keywords

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      Biography

      Lauren Hillam Wittwer, DNP, CPNP, is a recent graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Nursing and currently practices as a primary care pediatric nurse practitioner. She can be contacted at [email protected]

      Biography

      Elizabeth Walters, DNP, CPNP is the assistant director of operations of Advanced Practice Initiatives at the ANCC supporting the ANA Enterprise. She is a primary care pediatric nurse practitioner with adolescent medicine at the University of North Carolina.

      Biography

      Katherine Jordan, MD, is a primary care pediatrician and Medical Director with UNC. Dr. Jordan is also an Assistant Professor at the UNC School of Medicine.