Adherence to inhaled drugs – more than just reminders and nudging

Abstract

Introduction: For Asthma and COPD, adherence to prescribed drugs is complex, since it means also the effective inhalation of the drug and inhalation needs to be trained well to be performed effectively.

For this reason, patient tailored intervention is necessary for inhaled drugs. To address this, we use a digital therapeutics, called Kata®, to accompany patients with Asthma and COPD. The aim of the studies was to optimize the drug inhalation therapy through digital support by the help of augmented reality.

Material and Methods: We have tested Kata® with respect to usability and clinical outcome.

An app needs to be easy to use so most patients are capable to use it. The application needs to fit into patients’ daily life and must not add to the burden of disease. Both aspects are vital to increase adherence and empower patients.

For clinical outcome, we have performed a proof-of-concept study in 8 Asthma patients, to calculate the sample size for the clinical trial.

Results: The results of our usability studies were that 97% of patients in the age range of 7 to 76 years old were capable of using Kata® and 94% of patients found it helpful and were happy to use Kata®.

In terms of handling errors and daily use, we could reduce overall handling errors from 2.2 to 0.1 errors per inhalation and critical errors from 0.5 to 0.0 errors per inhalation. Patients used Kata® on average 1.5 times a day and reported, that Kata® was supportive to cope with the burden of disease.

Conclusion: Digital therapeutics are complex regarding usability, data capturing, drawing the right conclusion from data and communicating it to the patient and it is crucial to involve patients. The future study will show if we can reach clinical outcome improvements.