Monitoring of inhaler use at home with a smartphone video application in a pilot study.

Monitoring of inhaler use at home with a smartphone video application in a pilot study. NPJ Prim Care Respir Med. 2020 Oct 16;30(1):46 Authors: Dhadge N, Shevade M, Kale N, Narke G, Pathak D, Barne M, Madas S, Salvi S Abstract Inhalation therapy is the basis of the pharmacological management of asthma and COPD. Most patients are trained on the correct use of inhalers by health professionals but after that do patients continue to take them correctly at home remains largely unknown. Video recording of the inhalation technique using a smartphone can be used to evaluate the inhaler technique at home. Through this pilot study, we aimed to understand whether inhaler training given to patients in the outpatient clinic translates into good inhalation practices at home by a video application platform using a smartphone. We recruited 70 newly diagnosed asthma and COPD patients and a pulmonologist trained them to use their inhaler until they were able to use it correctly. Videos of inhaler use were captured by a relative or a friend at home and then sent to an independent reviewer via WhatsApp on Days 1, 7, 14 and 28 (±2). Each step of the inhaler technique was evaluated based on a predetermined checklist with a rating scale of 0 to 10 (10 for all steps done correctly). Out of 70 patients recruited, 30 (42%) sent all videos. We found that, although all patients performed all the steps correctly in the clinic, none of them performed all steps c...
Source: Primary Care - Category: Primary Care Authors: Tags: NPJ Prim Care Respir Med Source Type: research