Digital Action Plan for Asthma Attacks

It is recommended that patients with asthma owned a written action plan which must include the names, doses and dosing of the treatment they should take when acute respiratory symptoms occur. Current written action plans must be short to be readily used (1 page) and, therefore, cannot fit all acute situations. Moreover, they may not be available where and when required. The investigators sought that a digital action plan, available through Smartphone or tablet computer connected to the internet, could adequately provide suitable action plans according to the severity of the described exacerbation, and would be more easily available when useful. The aim of the study is to study the effect of the use of a digital action plan for asthma exacerbation, on the frequency of unscheduled medical contacts (phone calls, visits to physicians or to emergency departments, hospitalizations) in children and in adults with asthma. The investigators hypothesized that the use of the digital action plan could reduce avoidable unscheduled visits due to mild or moderate exacerbations that could successfully be managed by the patient or his/her caregivers.