eAMS: Asthma Management System app for iPhone and iPad

The Electronic Asthma Management System (eAMS) helps you to get the latest guideline care for your asthma by linking your symptoms to your doctor’s medical record system.

Asthma is a chronic respiratory disease that causes inflammation in your airways. This can cause symptoms such as coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath, and chest tightness. There is no cure for asthma, but its symptoms can be controlled with proper treatment. It is important to discuss your asthma with your healthcare provider to track your symptoms and adjust treatments as required.

Patients have a limited amount of time with their providers, and providers may not always be able to ask all the key questions and follow all the latest guidelines when treating patients with asthma. To solve this problem, our research group at the University of Toronto developed the eAMS. The idea behind the eAMS is to: 1) allow patients to take an active role in their health by answering a simple questionnaire in advance of their provider visit; and 2) use computer technology to assist providers in making care decisions in line with the newest research and medical guidelines.

While the eAMS app is free for any asthma patient to use, for you to get the full benefits of the eAMS, your provider must also be registered for the eAMS. If your provider is not already using the eAMS, then you can ask them to visit easthma.ca to register, or you can visit easthma.ca to download a simple information sheet on how to start using the system, for your provider.

The key features of the eAMS app are:
- A simple questionnaire which you complete before your provider visit. Based on your answers, our system calculates your asthma control level. When your provider sees you, we inform them about your asthma control, provide advice on how they can adjust your treatment accordingly, and build your custom “asthma action plan” for your provider’s approval – a plan for what you should do if your asthma symptoms flare up.
- Helpful educational features, including links to videos on puffer technique and an interactive glossary of all things asthma
- Your personalized asthma action plan – a tool which reminds you of your usual medications and instructs you on how to adjust your medications when your asthma symptoms get worse

If you have any questions or comments regarding the app, please email us at [email protected]