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W.R. Cobern, P.E. McSharry and L. Tarassenko (2005) Telemedicine to assist patient understanding of atmospheric influence on lung function and improve realtime control of mild-to-moderate asthmatics Proceedings of 3rd European Medical and Biological Engineering Conference (EMBEC 2005), Prague, Czech Republic, 20-25 November 2005.

Abstract

A real-time generic telemedicine system is presented. It is discussed in the context of self-management for people with mild-to-moderate asthma. The system, based around a GPRS mobile phone, is able to empower the patient with real-time feedback to assist the management of their condition. As environmental factors are recognised as influencing lung function, we have used data collected during a feasibility study of the telemedicine system to model these effects. We show that temperature and pressure are the primary environmental factors on morning lung function whereas temperature and pollution are the primary factors on the evening. We outline how such a model could be used in practice to improve selfmanagement.

Keywords

Telemedicine, Mobile telephones, Healthcare, Asthma, Weather, Lung function, Exacerbation, Peak expiratory flow