Efficacy of Mobile Phone Short Message Service (SMS) Reminder and Consultation on Asthma Control

Asthma is the disease being studied. The main objective of this study is to assess the clinical efficacy of mobile phone short message service (SMS) reminder and consultation on the self-management and outcomes of poorly controlled asthma which is first diagnosed in a time period of 3 months. The secondary objective is to explore the cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness of the proposed intervention. Aims: The main aim of this study is to assist asthma patients to practice asthma self-management at home by sending reminders and responding to patients' consultations with mobile phone short message service (SMS), which will eventually help them to control their asthma, and prevent asthma exacerbation. Thus, the ultimate goal of this proposed study is to improve patient health outcome via enhancing patient-physician interaction through mobile phone short message service (SMS) that is low-cost and could be followed easily by the patients and their physicians. The hypothesis is that asthma patients who receive weekly text message reminders to educate them and reinforce adherence will have better asthma outcome, such as asthma control, while the intervention integrating patient consultation and reminders by SMS improve asthma outcome even more. The investigators further hypothesize that these subjects under intervention will have an improvement in secondary measures including quality of life and patient satisfaction. The investigators also anticipate that such an approach in asthma management will be cost-effective.