A respiratory digital therapeutics toolkit is improving outcomes and reducing health inequalities for people with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in Wales.<\/p>\n
The toolkit, which has reached full adoption across 100 per cent of GP practices and hospitals in NHS Wales, is providing a personalised, digital care plan that empowers hundreds of thousands of people to take control of their condition and stay well in the community.<\/p>\n
Professor Simon Barry, National Respiratory Clinical Lead at NHS Wales<\/a> (2016-2024), explained the impact the toolkit is having at a national scale: \u201cOverall, we\u2019re seeing patients showing a significant improvement in wellness scores in as little as three months. The biggest improvement is among patients using the asthma app for four months or more who are seeing their wellness score increase by 41 per cent. Users in socioeconomically deprived areas, and young people are seeing the greatest improvements in their Royal College of Physicians (RCP) 3-questions score.\u201d<\/p>\n In addition, the toolkit has driven significant reductions in the use of reliever inhalers, an important marker of disease control:<\/p>\n The successful rollout has enabled many more outcome improvements, including reductions in GP visits and A&E admissions to alleviate pressure on overstretched services. The Respiratory Health Improvement Group (RHIG) in Wales will present new national datasets at an upcoming event, showcasing years of progress and population-level improvements.<\/p>\n Chris Davies, Principal and CEO at The Institute of Clinical Science and Technology<\/a>, said: \u201cUnfortunately, chronic diseases are common and expensive. Right now, \u00a37 in every \u00a310 of UK health and social expenditure goes toward chronic disease management, so it\u2019s time for a new approach. We are delighted to work alongside NHS Wales in transitioning from traditional healthcare delivery to a patient-driven, digital-first model that eases the pressure on the healthcare system and future-proofs the NHS. This approach enables individuals across large populations to have better agency, better empowerment and more confidence when they navigate their health.\u201d<\/p>\n Co-produced with patients, policymakers and clinical experts from within stakeholder groups, including the National Respiratory Audit Programme (NRAP), Asthma and Lung UK (ALUK), NHS Wales and NHS England, the toolkit uses the proven COM-B (Capability, Opportunity, Motivation-Behaviour) model to drive behaviour change. The app provides tailored support, including a personalised care plan and progress tracking, to help individuals manage their health.<\/p>\n The toolkit is expanding to other disease groups, offering a scalable model to meet rising care demand without overburdening healthcare professionals.<\/p>\n Members of the Respiratory Health Improvement Group (RHIG) in Wales will outline how the successful outcomes were achieved across Wales during a webinar on 13 March, chaired by Dr Lia Ali, Clinical Advisor, NHS Transformation Directorate for NHS England. Join the National Transformation of Respiratory Outcomes through Digital Therapeutics event by registering to attend here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Toolkit has driven significant reductions in reliever inhaler usage among asthma and COPD users, with biggest improvements seen in socioeconomically deprived areas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":5932,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,44,25,61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-digital-implementation","category-featured","category-news","category-population-health-2"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/integratedcarejournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/integratedcarejournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/integratedcarejournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/integratedcarejournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/integratedcarejournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5929"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/integratedcarejournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5929\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5933,"href":"https:\/\/integratedcarejournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5929\/revisions\/5933"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/integratedcarejournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/integratedcarejournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/integratedcarejournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/integratedcarejournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n