Managing asthma can be an arduous task. As an adult who has suffered from asthma their entire life, I can say I’ve not always been the best at remembering when to take medications or putting it off. Which is why it’s important for me to instill better habits into my daughter who also suffers from asthma. As children become teens, their level of adherence to asthma control medication falls significantly. At 55%, this means half of the kids with asthma in their teen years are not taking their meds as prescribed.
Enter BreatheSmart, the brainchild of Cohero Health, who I’ve partnered with this month to introduce you to their new way of managing asthma. The BreatheSmart app was created to help kids and teens manage their disease and uses the HeroTracker Sensors to empower kids and teens to take control of their own asthma and medication adherence. We want our daughter to be confident in her ability to manage her own disease, while also resting assured that her health is a priority and is controlled. Asthma can be so unpredictable, but with BreatheSmart, you can create better habits and recognize patterns in triggers and attacks that can actually help reduce the need for rescue medication.
With the BreatheSmart app, you can track dosage and send reminders to your child’s smartphone to reduce the risk of an attack, as well as track suspected triggers, all while keeping us, her parents, in the loop by allowing us access to the saved information in real-time. The app and sensors have been clinically proven and are easy to use. This system is also discreet, which is important in the formidable teen years when kids are learning to navigate their emotions and coexist with peers who may see asthma and asthma medication as a weakness. The discreet nature of the sensors and app gives them independence without advertising to the world that they have a medical condition.
Lark has been hospitalized several times in her short life because of asthma and we have learned, time and time again, just how important asthma medication is to her health and well-being. We’ve had to adhere to strict schedules, which isn’t always easy, nor convenient, which is why reminders and good habits are crucial. For a five-year-old, she’s very aware of what affects her, but in the years to come, when the responsibility becomes hers, it’s nice to have modern technology on our side to help keep her lungs and heart healthy. Low medication compliance is a major cause of asthma attacks. Studies show daily maintenance medicine at least 80% of the time is necessary to achieve asthma control. We have learned this the hard way at times when her symptoms have waned and we have gotten lax with treatments, only to have her asthma flare up much worse. We’d hate to have this happen when she’s on her own and in charge of her own health.
We are so excited to be able to try this technology for ourselves and introduce it here. One thing this blog and social media have done for us is connect us to so many families who navigating a similar path and we are so happy to connect you and your child to their asthma in such an innovative way.
Please visit http://coherohealth.com/BreatheSmart for more information. BreatheSmart is now available in the following 10 states– Alabama, California, Connecticut, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Nebraska, Ohio, Texas, Virginia, Wisconsin – but coming nationally soon. Stay tuned for more about BreatheSmart and Cohero Health in future posts.
