%0 Journal Article %A Silvia Pascual Erquicia %A Sandra Dorado Arenas %A Isabel Urrutia Landa %A Itziar Arrizubieta Basterrechea %A Txomin Zabala Hernandez %A Olaia Bronte Moreno %T The impact of telemedicine in healthcare demand by patients with severe persistent asthma %D 2016 %R 10.1183/13993003.congress-2016.PA2892 %J European Respiratory Journal %P PA2892 %V 48 %N suppl 60 %X Introduction: Action plans and education can improve asthma control and decrease exacerbations. These plans are effective but they have little efficiency because of their poor implementation. When action plans are used by telemedicine programs associated to education, there is an evidence of decline of hospital admissions while there are variable results about control of symptoms and quality of life questionnaires. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of telemedicine in healthcare demand by the patients with poorly controlled severe persistent asthma.Methods: We have 20 asthmatic patients in telemetry from July 2011 to nowadays, in whose healthcare demand was evaluated from the previous year of the inclusion until the following year post-inclusion in the programme. Equipment: Peak-flow meter and the tablet through which the patients send the data every day.Inclusion criteria: Diagnosis of asthma > 2 years, controlled by a Pulmonologist and one of the indications about the number of hospital admissions, visits to emergency rooms or visits to General Practice clinics, according to the GEMA 2009 and ERS/ATS Task Force criteria.Results: The results are showed in Table 1.View this table:TABLE 1. Healthcare use the previous and the following year of the inclusion in the program.Conclusion: In spite of the limitations in this study, we have been able to verify an important decline in healthcare demand with the probable saving of economic resources for health. We think that Telemedicine will be the future in the management of chronic diseases. %U