Integration and application of digital asthma management (AsthmaTuner) with artificial intelligence-assisted clinical decision support system (a-GPS) to optimize asthma care for vulnerable children

Asthma is a common chronic disease in children that is often difficult to control, leading to suffering for many children and significant costs to society. Disparities in asthma care, rates, and severity exist by ethnicity and socioeconomic status.

The electronic health record (EHR) contains rich data that can be used to improve asthma care, but it is inefficient for health care providers to find the most relevant information for each individual.

Mayo Clinic researchers in the US have developed a clinical decision support system based on artificial intelligence, Asthma-Guidance and Prediction System (a-GPS). It extracts relevant data from the EHR to assess individual risk of symptoms and asthma exacerbations.

The system was recently clinically tested, but no clear effects with a-GPS were identified on severe asthma exacerbations.

A weakness with a-GPS is the lack of real-time data such as lung function and symptoms; therefore, an integration with Asthmatuner, a mobile application and digital solution that has been CE-marked and validated for health care in Europe since 2018, is planned. AsthmaTuner was developed by Dr.

Björn Nordlund’s research group at Karolinska Institutet and has asthma self-care features such as lung function measurement, symptom reporting, and an automated treatment plan.

In this postdoc project, I will investigate together with Karolinska Institutet and the Mayo Clinic if the combination of a-GPS and AsthmaTuner can optimize care and prevent symptoms and exacerbations in children with asthma.

My role will be to lead the implementation of AsthmaTuner at the Mayo Clinic and coordinate a larger randomized clinical study to evaluate the effect of a-GPS and AsthmaTuner on asthma symptoms and exacerbations in relation to socioeconomic status and ethnicity.

The project’s goal is to support my development as an independent researcher with expertise in pediatric asthma, digital health, artificial intelligence, and health equity.