ALEX: Design, Development and Evaluation of a Digital Health Assistant for Paediatric Asthma

Asthma is a chronic condition that impacts the wellbeing of many children and adolescents. Treatment is often challenging for patients and clinicians alike, due to the heavy reliance on patients monitoring their own disease and adhering to medication. Gamified digital therapeutic programs help patients to manage disease more effectively, as they motivate users to remain engaged by tapping into their inner desire to obtain incentives and rewards. The goal of this project was to develop and assess the effectiveness of a gamified Digital Health Assistant (DHA) called “Alex” for children and adolescents with asthma to monitor disease and promote adherence to treatment. This smartphone-based DHA helps children and adolescents to commit to medication schedules while reducing patient burden due to passive data collection, thanks to smart watches and sensors incorporated into medication inhalers. Real-time data recorded in this manner also allows healthcare providers to intervene with personalized advice. Furthermore, this data could be used to train artificial intelligence models to provide actionable insights and predict symptom progression.

The researchers have finalized  Alex’s design and the testing of several modules has shown that it is well received by users. Moreover, the team will investigate the feasibility of this system in resource-constrained settings such as Romania. The implementation and acceptability of this system among Romanian adolescents will be studied and local healthcare providers will be consulted in order to evaluate the impact of Alex on asthma control. The findings of this study will provide useful information for researchers and healthcare providers alike, opening the door to efficient and simplified disease management. Additionally, they will inform policymakers to improve support for these tools, especially in middle-income countries. Finally, Alex promises to revolutionize asthma management for adolescents and improve quality of life in an interactive and enjoyable way.