PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Uwe E. Berger AU - Siegfried Jäger AU - Karl-Christian Bergmann TI - PHD, the electronic patient's hayfever diary DP - 2011 Sep 01 TA - European Respiratory Journal PG - 3213 VI - 38 IP - Suppl 55 4099 - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/38/Suppl_55/3213.short 4100 - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/38/Suppl_55/3213.full SO - Eur Respir J2011 Sep 01; 38 AB - The electronic pollen diary allows patients suffering from allergic rhinitis due to pollen to correlate the type (conjunctival, nasal, bronchial) and severity (degree 0–3) of her symptoms and the type and frequency of medication to correlate with the kind and intensity of the pollen exposure at the place of her stay.The symptoms are entered daily in an online form by the patient anonymously.The pollen exposition for the user is investigated with the help of the postcode, and the suitable data from the area's pollen trap are correlated with the symptoms and medication. Because pollen data are collected europewide and stored in a common database (EAN, Vienna) it is possible to correlate the pollen load and symptoms of the affected person even if that person was travelling (in Europe). The user can chart symptoms and pollen flight and interpret accordingly.The pollen diary is retrievable under www.pollenstiftung.de and www.pollendiary.com free of charge and exists to date (1.2.2011) in 9 languages. In 2009 >4.000 and in 2010 >10.000 patients have used this tool.The pollen diary supports the diagnosis of pollinosis and might be of help for therapy evaluation. It is appropriate for application in clinical studies on immunotherapy or for the effect of drug therapies. Also, this instrument is able to determine individual threshold values for pollen concentrations inducing symptoms and is likely to determine the clinical meaning of pollen kinds which were considered up to now not enough.Furthermore any change of the threshold values is documented with these tools in the population throughout Europe and is measured.