Extraction of Vital Signs using a Telehealth Application for Asthma - EViTA-AThe purpose of this grant is to evaluate mobile devices to extract vitals signs to monitor patients with Asthma

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Asthma is a chronic disease that affects quality of life, productivity, and healthcare use, and can ultimately lead to death. The costs of asthma are largely due to uncontrolled disease and accordingly rise as its prevalence and severity increase. Unfortunately, the incidence and impact of asthma attacks have not improved despite widespread adoption of effective universal treatment guidelines by healthcare providers, revealing an unmet need to facilitate implementation and monitoring of large groups of asthma patients. We seek to improve the detection of the presence and severity of an asthma attack for proper triage of patients to receive immediate medical treatment versus continued observation at home. Telemedicine provides an opportunity for better management, but these visual and verbal evaluations are often incomplete without vital sign measurements. Our approach of remote monitoring with video-based vital sign capture offers a game-changing alternative to address asthma attacks upon their initial presentation and prevention through improved management of chronic asthma symptoms. This innovative technology will: (i) extend the reach for physicians and accessibility for patients; (ii) improve efficiency of healthcare delivery to the highest risk patients; (iii) limit exposure to infectious disease for both patient and provider; and (iv) utilize common (relatively) commercial off the shelf (COTS) technologies instead of expensive boutique equipment. The distinguishing characteristics of asthma (inflammation, airway hyperreactivity and remodeling) are the expression of a unique and complex set of molecular interactions that also manifest as symptoms and changes in behavior that result in observed clinical phenotypes. Our next steps are to enhance remote medical monitoring with extracted vital signs by developing a biopsychosocial approach to refine phenotypes of asthma. Ultimately, the approach here will enhance the data gathered from each digital touchpoint to improve early detection of acute health status before more costly interventions are needed, thereby improving quality of life, and providing lower SES patients with asthma or other respiratory illnesses a more viable means to obtaining access to healthcare.