Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca and integrated health services provider Geisinger are partnering to create an app suite, which by connecting to electronic health records (EHR) aims to upgrade asthma care.

With the new products, patients and healthcare providers can both co-manage their condition especially during the times between clinic visits. The partners amalgamated their individual proficiencies in disease management, healthcare innovation, patient engagement, adherence, research and technology to develop the app.

AstraZeneca Respiratory Vice-president Tosh Butt said, “AstraZeneca’s partnership with Geisinger is focused on how we can arm patients and physicians with digital tools with the intention of speeding diagnosis and treatment decisions. This is an exciting time in patient care.”

The new app suite comprises of a mobile app intended to notify patients about asthma-related weather, record symptoms and asthma triggers, track health status over time, and send medication reminders. It also enables patients to be in touch with their healthcare team. The mobile app data is connected to a real-time web-based application, Provider Asthma Management Assistant, which pools EHR with data inputs testified by the patients.

This availability of data will enable asthma educators and respiratory therapists to triage patients and connect them to specialists, if necessary. Geisinger Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine chair Paul Simonelli said, “Patients sometimes do a lot worse with their asthma than we know based on a three, six or nine-month periodic office visit.

“This new suite of products could easily be adapted to any long-term chronic respiratory illness that needs monitoring, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).”