Improvement in asthma symptoms and quality of life in pediatric patients through specialty care delivered via telemedicine.

Asthma is the most common chronic disease affecting children. Studies have demonstrated improvements in asthma control when care is delivered by specialists compared with generalists. We postulated that specialist care delivered by telemedicine would result in similar improvements in control of symptoms and quality of life as compared with face-to-face encounters with specialists. Seventeen patients with persistent asthma, who were cared for by pediatricians in a rural school-based health clinic, were treated over a 6-month period in an asthma specialty program. Patients had face-to-face encounters at week zero, and then telemedicine follow-up visits at weeks 4, 12, and 24. Patients maintained a symptom diary and reliever medication use log. Spirometry and patient and caregiver quality-of-life questionnaires were completed at each visit. Mean number of symptom free days increased 83% from 2.35 days at week 0 to 4.31 days at week 24 (p < 0.05). There was a 44% reduction in mean symptom scores, from 2.32 at week 0 to 1.31 at week 24 (p < 0.001). Nine patients reported having 7 symptom-free days or 7 days of symptom scores of zero in the preceding seven days at week 24 compared with one patient at week 0 (p < 0.002). FEV(1) increased by > or = 12% in seven patients during the study period. Significant improvements in quality of life were reported by patients at week 4 (p < 0.02) and week 24 (p < 0.01), and by caregivers at week 24 (p < 0.002). Specialty asthma care delivered via telemedicine resulted in improvements in asthma symptom control and quality of life similar to improvements reported in face-to-face encounters provided by specialists.