Photo Credit: David Peperkamp
The fields of allergy and immunology may soon see notable increases in mobile health allergy apps and AI use for monitoring treatment adherence and symptoms.
Mobile health (mHealth) apps will play a key role in the future management of chronic allergic diseases such as asthma and allergic rhinitis, advises an editorial published in Allergy.
“With ubiquitous wearable and mobile devices available, digital connectivity has advanced to a stage where it can enable patients and clinicians to monitor symptoms and compliance to a degree previously unachievable,” wrote corresponding author De Yun Wang, MD, PhD, and a coauthor.
The editorial described a position paper published earlier this year by a joint task force from the Allergic Rhinitis and Its Impact on Asthma (ARIA) and the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI). The ARIA-EAACI “Digitally-enabled, person-centered care in allergen immunotherapy” paper included two apps with adequate validation for allergen immunotherapy: AllergyMonitor and MASK-air.
Clinicians can use mHealth apps to assess treatment response and compliance among patients undergoing allergen immunotherapy. The authors added that mHealth apps enable daily data collection, which could support research and clinical efforts.
According to the editorial, the future of digitally enabled, person-centered care for allergic disease management will likely include the integration of mHealth app data into patient EHRs. Validated digital biomarkers will be incorporated into clinical practice guidelines to help clinicians guide patient management in combination with biological biomarkers.
The editorial also predicted a role for AI in analyzing and responding to patient mHealth data.
“AI-aided clinical management will involve clinician input initially, but it is no longer inconceivable that AI will be integral to patient management in the future, from providing automated advice to prescribing and titrating medications,” the authors forecasted. “This will likely be piloted in conditions that are less likely to lead to severe morbidity or mortality, such as allergic rhinitis.”
To protect patients, guidelines will need to address ethical and legal considerations of digital health data collection.
“mHealth apps and databases contain confidential health information and are not immune to cyberattacks or misuse,” the authors noted. “Data security measures must be instituted to prevent data breaches.”
