Designed with healthcare experts, the MyAsthma app allows people to track and understand their disease while monitoring potential environment and lifestyle asthma triggers.

The UK has some of the highest asthma rates in Europe with nearly 5.4m Brits –one in 11 children (1.1 million) and 1 in 12 adults (4.3 million) –presently receiving treatment for asthma.

Asthma attacks hospitalise someone every 8 minutes and on a daily average, 185 people are admitted to a hospital because of asthma attacks in the UK; and nearly three Brits on average die from asthma every day.

Every 20 minutes, a child is admitted to a hospital in the UK because of an asthma attack; and every classroom has three children on average suffering with asthma.

The NHS is spending approximately £1 billion every year to treat and care for people with asthma.

The MyAsthma app has been designed to be the most clinically relevant, connected and environmentally contextual mobile medical device application ever developed in respiratory care. Data from the app builds a personal asthma summary for the person using it, by capturing environmental, pollen and activity data, the app can allow users to record and see factors that may trigger their asthma.

Patients can also share the information from the app with their healthcare professional and allow them to better understand the status of their asthma.

The MyAsthma app, can also be used by carers who can track up to five people’s conditions on their smartphone. Designed to fit into everyday life the app connects with leading wearables such as Fitbit, but also fitness services including Apple Health and Strava to understand exercise and sleep information.The app by GSK is free to download from the UK Apple App Store and it is compatible with iPhones running iOS 9+.

We have on hand Dr. Dominick Shaw who was part of the team from The University of Nottingham that co-developed the app; he has also published several research papers on severe asthma to further the progress of the disease monitoring and management, as well as Kai Gait, co-developer of the app from GSK.

(The World’s First Asthma App Certified as a Mobile Medical Device (Class I). Class I is self-certified, so this meant GSK built, documented, tested and monitor the app with rigorous processes and ongoing validation. They registered the app through the UK with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) being the controlling body).