“Telehealth care” is being touted as a possible way to treat asthma sufferers. Using the telephone or Internet, health care workers can give patients personal attention and potentially keeping those with severe asthma out of hospital by identifying and dealing with troublesome symptoms.
Asthma is a chronic lung condition, caused by inflammation of the bronchial tubes and characterised by coughing and wheezing. It is estimated that more than 250 million people worldwide have asthma in varying degrees of severity.
As the numbers of patients with the condition has risen over the last three decades, so too has the cost of treating those patients. Improving care and services, and improving access to those services, was the focus of a study by researchers at the University of Edinburgh.
They analysed the results of 21 studies in which more than 10,000 asthma patients from countries such as the USA, UK, Portugal, Brazil, Australia and Japan used “telehealth care” to talk to medical professionals. The methods included telephone, Internet, text messages, video conferencing and a combination of all those technologies. Care generally began with a face-to-face consultation.
The researchers concluded that patients with mild asthma did not get as many benefits from this form of care as those with severe asthma did – being able to access medical professionals in a speedy fashion allowed those with severe asthma to report the onset of symptoms that might normally require treatment in hospital. The team also reported that there was no evidence that using telehealth to treat patients resulted in worst care than for those who saw a health care professional face to face.
The Edinburgh research team’s review was published in the Cochrane Library. The study called for more research into whether “telehealth care” could be cost effective for asthma sufferers and for those with other chronic conditions.
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