The challenge
Many studies have shown that respiratory diseases like asthma and COPD are most common and most severe in the areas of high deprivation and high ethnic diversity. These patients are most likely to have poor control and frequent exacerbations leading to hospitalisation. 

Poor inhaler technique is common (60-90% of patients in studies) and causes suboptimal asthma and COPD control and hospital admissions. Improving inhaler technique improves outcomes but as many as two-thirds of people do not attend their review appointments. Studies show that proper inhaler technique is associated with improved asthma control. Doubling adherence rates would save approximately £90 million per year and 25% of the costs of inhalers are due to poor inhaler technique. The cost of hospital admissions for asthma is estimated at £61 million per year and a patient whose asthma exacerbates and requires hospital treatment costs 3.5 times that of a patient who does not. In addition, this does not include the economic impact to the patient which will also be detrimental. Improving both adherence and inhaler technique will result in fewer asthma and COPD deaths, a reduction in hospital admissions, less medication wastage and reduced NHS cost. 

The solution

Hailie® is an unobtrusive, slimline, Bluetooth device that clips onto regular asthma inhalers and serves to audibly remind the patient when their prescribed medication is due to be taken. Hailie® then records that the medication has been taken. .

These data are transferred to the Hailie® Smartphone app and subsequently to the secure UK cloud-based clinician portal. Monitoring inhaled medication adherence has been proven to boost patient compliance and audible reminders has also been proven to have an additive effect.

The app uses numerical displays and icons rather than text. This improves accessibility for those people where English is not their first language. 

The impact

  • Using Hailie® has been proven to improve adherence to medications by 180% and to reduce hospitalisations by 80%.
  • Steroid usage is reduced by up to 39%.
  • Reduction in hospital admissions helps to reduce CO2 emissions by 50%.

Source: The effect of an electronic monitoring device with audiovisual reminder function on adherence to inhaled corticosteroids and school attendance in children with asthma: a randomised controlled trial

For more information, visit: https://heliconhealth.co.uk/