Letter to the Editor. Open Access
Anna Vanoverschelde, Paulien van der Wel, Barbara Putman & Lies Lahousse
Clinical and Translational Allergy volume 10, Article number: 59 (2020)
To the editor
Non-adherence and suboptimal inhaler technique are major problems in patients with obstructive lung disease. Less than one third of patients use their inhaler correctly, and the inhaler technique has not improved over the past 40 years despite innovations in devices [1]. Suboptimal inhaler use leads to more side effects, poor symptom control, reductions in health-related quality of life, exacerbations and consequently, increased healthcare costs [2, 3]. In order to achieve and maintain a correct inhaler technique, innovative approaches for education including mobile health applications (mHealth apps) are being explored [4]. The My Puff app, in which patients can choose their inhaler to watch instruction videos, could be an innovative approach to continue inhaler technique training between care visits. However, to date, the feasibility to integrate this app in patient care as well as the effectiveness of this app has not yet been evaluated. Therefore, we aimed to measure inhaler technique and disease control improvement three months after a pharmaceutical care intervention, comparing aid to install and use the My Puff app to providing standard information leaflets for continued home education….