JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Adolescents are using mobile health applications as a form of self-management to collect data on symptoms, medication adherence, and activity. Adding functionality to an electronic health record (EHR) to accommodate the disease-specific data generated by patients (patient-generated health data; PGHD) may support clinical care. Pediatric asthma, a prevalent health issue in the United States with 6 million children afflicted, serves as an exemplar condition to examine information needs related to PGHD.

Objective:

In this study we aimed to identify and prioritize asthma care tasks and decisions based on pediatric asthma guidelines and to identify types of PGHD that might support the activities associated with the decisions.

Methods:

We searched the literature for exemplar asthma mobile applications and examined the types of PGHD collected. We prioritized the information needs associated with each decision, assessed the suitability of PGHD to meet those needs, and validated with expert asthma providers.

Results:

We mapped guideline-derived information needs to potential PGHD types and found PGHD that may be useful in meeting information needs. Information needs included types of symptoms, symptom triggers, medication adherence and inhaler technique. Examples of suitable types of PGHD were Asthma Control Test (ACT) calculations, exposures and inhaler use. Providers suggested uncontrolled asthma as a place to focus PGHD efforts, indicating that they preferred to review PGHD at the time of the visit.

Conclusions:

We identified a manageable list of information requirements derived from clinical guidelines that can be used to guide the design and integration of PGHD into EHRs to support pediatric asthma management.