Background:

While digital therapeutics offer a potential to address Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA)-identified factors for poor asthma outcomes (misdiagnosis, poor control, suboptimal adherence, incorrect inhaler technique, trigger exposures, overuse of short-acting ?-agonist and no action plan), the availability of multiple apps adds complexity, limiting their usability. Herein, we studied the Breathe Digital Ecosystem, an integrated platform with multiple features, which is currently authorised for investigational testing in Canada (Fig 1A).

Methods:

In this ongoing mixed-methods study (NCT05594654) in patients at GINA Step 3?5, the daily usage of Breathe app was analysed using both the in-app algorithm and manually for 2 months. Qualitative data were also collected.

Results:

Of 17/30 patients who participated at the time of analysis, 57±15% of participants used the Breathe app daily. In total, 48±13% of the users captured their medication completions daily (Breezhaler assistant: 37±14%; manually: 11±10%). Qualitative feedback demonstrated its user-friendliness along with patients? satisfaction with different features including the electronic respiratory educator, medication alert and chatbot instructions (Fig 1B).

Conclusions:

These preliminary results showed that Breathe app was accepted, used and positively reviewed by patients. Future analysis will determine its potential in controlling GINA-identified gaps.