‘Smart Inhaler’ Improves Adherence to Asthma Medication

Adherium Limited, a developer of digital health technologies that address sub-optimal medication use in chronic disease, notes that the UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has published a Medtech Innovation Briefing (MIB) on Adherium’s Smartinhaler technology platform, recognizing the role that it can play in improving adherence to asthma medication.
 
Smartinhaler is Adherium’s proprietary digital platform, which monitors inhaler use by patients with chronic respiratory disease, especially asthma. Smartinhaler devices attach to prescription inhalers, providing reminders and analysis of inhaler usage, giving patients and healthcare professionals real-time data on medication use, allowing better disease management.
 
NICE is an independent organization providing national guidance and advice to the UK’s NHS on medical treatments to improve healthcare. MIBs provide clinicians with an up-to-date summary of innovative technologies, their uses and potential role in the treatment pathway, with input from clinical experts and patient organizations.
 
Today’s MIB states that Adherium’s innovative Smartinhaler technology platform allows real-time monitoring of adherence to asthma treatments, with valuable data being shared between patients and clinicians. It summarized key points observed from five randomized controlled trials in the UK, Australia and New Zealand, involving a total of 589 people with asthma (adults and children) using Smartinhaler in a community setting. Each trial showed that Smartinhaler devices were more effective than the current standard of care in improving adherence to asthma medication.
 
NICE also identified that use of Smartinhaler could potentially lead to a change in the approach to routine review, with data used to identify patients who need more frequent review, or who do not need to be seen in person for an annual review. Aiding clinician’s understanding of patient adherence is key to reducing exacerbations of respiratory conditions and the expensive additional treatment that they require.
 
Adherium’s initial patient focus for Smartinhaler is on poorly controlled asthma, particularly in children, and patients with severe persistent asthma. Asthma UK’s Annual Asthma Survey Report, published last week, highlighted that two thirds of UK asthma sufferers are still not receiving the basic care they need to manage their asthma properly and that 82% of UK patients’ asthma is poorly controlled.
 
Dr. Louise Fleming, Clinical senior lecturer, National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London, commented: “I have been using the Smartinhaler platform as standard practice for patients within myasthma clinic and have seen first-hand the benefits to patient care that this technology can make. Tracking and analyzing a patient’s inhaler trends online and in real-time means that we can address and improve adherence, reducing asthma attacks and hospitalizations. This not only saves time and money, but also by putting the monitoring app directly in the hands of the patient, enables them to manage their condition more effectively, improving quality of life.
 
Garth Sutherland, CEO of Adherium said: “NICE’s briefing today is a key milestone in the adoption of digital health technologies by the NHS and other healthcare providers. Our trials have shown that Smartinhaler use results in a significant increase in medication adherence and a reduction in the days missed from school or work. With Asthma costing the UK economy over £1.1bn per year in medication costs and hospital admissions¹, we look forward to bringing the benefits of our technology to as many patients as possible, improving their quality of life through better asthma management, as well as improving the effectiveness and cost-efficiency of treatment.”
 
References
¹Asthma UK, Annual Asthma Survey Report 2016