Dive Brief:
- Geisinger and AstraZeneca have launched a suite of digital apps aimed at getting asthma patients to talk to their doctors and assume more control over managing their disease.
- The mobile app data connects to a real-time, web-based application called Provider Asthma Management Assistant, which combines EHR and patient-reported data feeds to track and monitor symptoms and attacks and then triages patients.
- The app suite lets patients see asthma-related weather forecasts, log symptoms and triggers, create medication reminders, track health status and communicate with their health team.
Dive Insight:
The digital toolkit is another example of providers and payers looking to engage patients in their healthcare and PHI management.
“Asthma symptoms can be unpredictable and breathing issues don’t always occur in the doctor’s office,” Tosh Butt, vice president-respiratory at AstraZeneca, said in a statement. “[A] tool to help patients and physicians stay connected and share information in real-time is what connected health is all about.”
Geisinger is striving to stay on top of digital health advancement. The Danville, Pennsylvania-based health system recently partnered with Rabbittransit on a initiative to get patients who lack transportation to their medical and health appointments. Two pilots are planned, an urban project in northeastern Pennsylvania and a rural one in the central part of the state.
The effort with AstraZeneca is not Geisinger’s first involving a drugmaker.
The nonprofit, integrated health system plans to offer patients free DNA sequencing as routine care practice. The project is an outgrowth of a collaboration with Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, which started sequencing the DNA of MyCode Community Health participants in 2013. The program, which aims to speed detection of conditions like heart disease and cancer, includes more than 200,000 patients.
Geisinger told attendees at the HLTH 2018 conference the company will sign up 1,000 patients by the end of the year and roll the program out as standard care.
David Ledbetter, executive vice president and chief scientific officer at Geisinger, said the new suite of asthma-related apps “meshes neatly with the overall translational nature of Geisinger research.”