MASK’s mobile app is dedicated to controlling allergic rhinitis. It builds on the experience of the ARIA-MASK programme, the first twinning that was focused on rhinitis and asthma multimorbidity.
Severe asthma is an important unmet public health problem and causes over 80% of asthma costs. MASK (Mobile Airways Sentinel NetworK) is a Good Practice of DG Santé on digital tools for citizen empowerment and person-centred care for rhinitis and asthma multimorbidity. To reduce the burden of severe asthma across the life cycle with a focus on elderly people, the DigitalHealthEurope twinning aimed to build on the experience of the rhinitis twinning ARIA-MASK and to create a network of centres of excellence on severe asthma that will form the first network on the digital transformation in airways diseases.
The knowledge exchange of this DigitalHealthEurope twinning took place between KYOMED (France), as the originator of the project, and the following partners as the adopters:
Hospital District of Helsinki & University of Helsinki (Finland); C. Bachert (Belgium); Azienda Sanitaria Locale (Italy); University of Bari (Italy); University of Torino (Italy); N. Scichilone (Italy); DHRR – DIGITAL HEALTH REGISTRY & RESEARCH SRL – Impresa Sociale (Italy); Global Allergy and Asthma European Network_GA2LEN (Germany); M. Papadopoulous (Greece); Lithuanian Association of Allergy and Asthma (Lithuania); Macvia (France); Medical University of Lodz (Poland); University Of Gdansk (Poland); P. Kuna (Poland); Hospital Centre and University of Coimbra (Portugal); University of Porto (Portugal); University of Lisbon (Portugal); Servicio Aragones de Salud (Spain); IDIBAPS, Institute of Biomedics Investigation (Spain); J. Anto (Spain)
The DigitalHealthEurope twinning partners focused on using the validated IT tools of MASK to develop an updated app and an interoperable web-based physician’s questionnaire. These digital tools should help to better understand the phenotype and treatment of severe asthma with possible differences between countries and genders. The results were to be included in the MASK Good Practice for disease stratification and personalised healthcare with a vision to optimise the prescription of expensive treatments.
The MASK twinning is based on mHealth systems for monitoring, alerts and reminders. The twinning partners used digital tools to support patient feedback and adherence to medication and to follow up on care plans. The results of the project are to be used as the basis for further development of the digital tools beyond the DigitalHealthEurope funding, including clinical trials using the centres of excellence.
More information about the MASK twinning can be found here.