A feasibility study of remote monitoring of asthmatic patients.

We assessed the feasibility of a remote monitoring system for asthmatic patients to use in their own homes. Eighty-four patients were invited to participate following discharge from hospital after an acute exacerbation of their asthma. We remotely monitored 33 patients from two hospitals for two weeks. Their mean age was 34 years (range 17-50 years). Patient compliance with monitoring was 80% (range 45-231%) and compliance with transmitting the results using a modem was 52% (range 0-100%). The average time spent teaching patients how to perform measurements was 16 min (range 2-55 min) and time spent providing asthma education was 39 min (range 5-135 min). Ninety-six per cent of patients found the equipment easy or very easy to use and 92% said they would use the equipment again in the future. Medical intervention occurred in 48% of patients during the study period, which suggests that the use of remote monitoring could be important in reducing asthma morbidity and improving treatment outcomes.