Severe Asthma, Telemedicine, and Self-Administered Therapy: Listening First to the Patient

Abstract

Severe asthma patients are at an increased risk of major complications and they need to be monitored regularly. The COVID-19 pandemic has notably impacted on the health care resources. The telemedicine approach applied to the follow-up of asthmatic patients has been proven to be effective in monitoring their disease and their adherence to the therapy. The aim of our study was to investigate the satisfaction of severe asthma patients before the activation of a telemedicine management, as well as their current experience with self-administration of injection therapy. An ad hoc questionnaire was developed and sent by e-mail to 180 severe asthma patients. Most of subjects, 82%, were confident with the idea of doing self-measurements and self-managing their disease. Further, 77% of subjects favoured to carry out virtual visits and telemedicine. Regarding the home treatment, 93% of patients considered the self-injection therapy easy, 94% of subjects felt safe, and 93% were not worried while self-administering. Only mild adverse events were reported in 22% of patients after self-administration. Our results showed an agreement between what is considered necessary and practicable by healthcare personnel and what is perceived by the severe asthma patients in terms of treatment and monitoring of the disease with Telehealth. Biologics have a safety profile and can be easily self-administred at home.