PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Lara S. van den Wijngaart
AU  - Jolt Roukema
AU  - Annemie L.M. Boehmer
AU  - Marianne L. Brouwer
AU  - Cindy A.C. Hugen
AU  - Laetitia E.M. Niers
AU  - Arwen J. Sprij
AU  - Eleonora R.V.M. Rikkers-Mutsaerts
AU  - Bart L. Rottier
AU  - A. Rogier T. Donders
AU  - Chris M. Verhaak
AU  - Mariëlle W. Pijnenburg
AU  - Peter J.F.M. Merkus
TI  - A virtual asthma clinic for children: fewer routine outpatient visits, same asthma control
AID  - 10.1183/13993003.00471-2017
DP  - 2017 Oct 01
TA  - European Respiratory Journal
PG  - 1700471
VI  - 50
IP  - 4
4099  - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/50/4/1700471.short
4100  - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/50/4/1700471.full
SO  - Eur Respir J2017 Oct 01; 50
AB  - eHealth is an appealing medium to improve healthcare and its value (in addition to standard care) has been assessed in previous studies. We aimed to assess whether an eHealth intervention could improve asthma control while reducing 50% of routine outpatient visits.In a multicentre, randomised controlled trial with a 16-month follow-up, asthmatic children (6–16 years) treated in eight Dutch hospitals were randomised to usual care (4-monthly outpatient visits) and online care using a virtual asthma clinic (VAC) (8-monthly outpatient visits with monthly web-based monitoring). Outcome measures were the number of symptom-free days in the last 4 weeks of the study, asthma control, forced expiratory volume in 1 s, exhaled nitric oxide fraction, asthma exacerbations, unscheduled outpatient visits, hospital admissions, daily dose of inhaled corticosteroids and courses of systemic corticosteroids.We included 210 children. After follow-up, symptom-free days differed statistically between the usual care and VAC groups (difference of 1.23 days, 95% CI 0.42–2.04; p=0.003) in favour of the VAC. In terms of asthma control, the Childhood Asthma Control Test improved more in the VAC group (difference of 1.17 points, 95% CI 0.09–2.25; p=0.03). No differences were found for other outcome measures.Routine outpatient visits can partly be replaced by monitoring asthmatic children via eHealth.A virtual asthma clinic as an individualised online monitoring strategy can partly replace routine outpatient visits http://ow.ly/f9Vd30dqWvJ