#AskAboutAsthma is back for 2022. Now in its sixth year, the campaign is about making simple changes to children and young people’s care that will make a big difference to how they experience their asthma.
Young people love their phones. So it makes sense that we use technology to try to make their experience better. The Digital Health Passport (DHP) is a mobile self-management app that has been co-designed to help young people take better control of their health. It focuses on making care a bit smarter and more convenient.
The #AskAboutAsthma campaign encourages children and young people, their families, and those involved in their care, to ensure four simple and effective measures to help them control their asthma:
1. Get an asthma action plan in place
A written asthma action plan drawn up between a clinician and patient means people are four times less likely to have to go to hospital for their asthma.
The Digital Health Passport provides home for the asthma action plan and makes it easy to share digitally with friends and family. The plan and emergency instructions are always accessible as the mobile phone is never far away!
2. Understand how to use inhalers correctly
Less than three-quarters of children and young people have any form of instruction in how to use their inhaler. Poor inhaler technique means patients don’t get the full benefit of their asthma medication.
The DHP helps teach correct inhaler technique with videos from Asthma & Lung UK and Beat Asthma aimed at younger people. Furthermore it can help to improve adherence with daily reminders to take medication correctly.
3. Schedule an asthma review – every year and after every attack
An asthma review by an appropriately trained clinician after every attack helps to work out what went wrong. An annual review ensures effective management of the condition.
All the outputs of the review (action plan, symptom/peak flow diary, educational materials, emergency instructions) are all held within the Digital Health Passport. The DHP can help clinicians view symptom graphs over the days and months leading up to the review or the weeks following.
4. Consider air pollution and its impact on lung health
We want to ensure that every asthma conversation considers the impact of outdoor and indoor air pollution on children and young people’s asthma.
The Digital Health Passport has daily air quality alerts, and instructions from Clean Air Hub. Easy to read air quality education. Together, the alerts and knowledge of what to do, may help with trigger avoidance.
The Digital Health Passport will be widely available in 2022/23 with funding from NHS England Transformation Directorate.
For more information, please get in touch with the developers [email protected]