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In my first post I discussed how e-Health tools can empower Canadians with asthma to improve their health and quality of life by managing their disease more effectively.

In this post I would like to discuss a specific example of a tool that the Asthma Society of Canada is using with success. We recently launched the AsthmaToday Widget – this is an interactive, virtual tool for people living with asthma and associated allergies to stay informed on important issues and the information they need to plan outdoor activities.  It can be downloaded free from our website at www.asthma.ca/widget  to a computer or laptop.Plus...

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Why focus on eHealth solutions for chronic disease management? Specifically, how can these tools empower Canadians with asthma to improve their health and quality of life by managing their disease more effectively?  Let me suggest a few key reasons here and invite you to comment on them or add your own to the list.

First, I believe that easy-to-use applications for use on mobile data and communication devices will appeal to certain demographics and encourage people to self-monitor and better control their illness. The eHealth tools will simply make it convenient and interesting in a way that paper-based tools cannot.  Plus...

I am pleased to have this opportunity to participate in the Consumer Health Think Tank blog.  My role at the Asthma Society of Canada (ASC) constantly challenges me to explore new and innovative approaches to chronic disease management.

I was recently at a talk given by the Executive Director of the Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease in the US and the key take home messages, equally relevant in the Canadian context, were that chronic diseases are the number one cause of death, account for 75% of all health care spending and account for most of the increase in spending and the vast majority of cases of chronic disease could be better prevented or managed.

So how do we change this?

Our vision at the ASC is to empower every child and adult in Canada with asthma to live an active and symptom-free life. 

We know that there are 3 million Canadians with asthma and we know that about 60% of them are not managing their disease well and are suffering as a result.  There are excellent tools to available to empower people with asthma to work better with their doctors and other health care professionals to manage their chronic disease on a daily basis – action plans, educational booklets, websites, e-learning modules and dvds but clearly these are not working for everyone.  The opportunity to empower self-management by creating ehealth asthma applications is intriguing and could reach a segment of the asthma patient population whose needs are currently not being met.  I look forward to discussing issues relating to asthma patient empowerment using ehealth technology in this blog in the coming weeks.