An mHealth Platform for Predicting Risk of Pediatric Asthma Exacerbation Using Personal Sensor Monitoring Systems: The Los Angeles Prisms Center

摘要

Pediatric asthma is a complex and heterogeneous chronic disease that affects millions worldwide and results in significant morbidity and mortality. Studies have shown environmental exposures such as air pollution to be associated with risk of asthma attacks, but little is known about the time lag between exposure and response, the role of multiple exposures in context, and variation in personal risk at short temporal and fine spatial scales. As part of the Los Angeles PRISMS Center, the LA PRISMS Breathe (Biomedical Real-Time Health Evaluation) Kit is being developed as a noninvasive, secure end-to-end informatics platform that utilizes the latest in mHealth technologies to advance environmental health studies of pediatric asthma. The platform is based on a smartwatch/smartphone that securely and wirelessly communicates with a suite of personal environmental, physiological and health sensors in real time and collects self-report symptoms data and contextual information using Ecological Momentary Assessment methods. External environmental data such as meteorology, traffic and air quality is also collected based on time and location of the participant. Data is integrated and analyzed to build individualized exposure and asthma exacerbation prediction models and the information is fed back to asthmatics, caretakers and physicians to improve asthma management. This talk will present key components of the Breathe Kit and its deployment in environmental health research studies, including participant engagement, compliance and burden considerations. Data from preliminary pilot testing in a panel study of children with asthma recruited from the UCLA Pediatric Pulmonology clinic will be presented. The ultimate goal of the LA PRISMS Breathe Kit is to be able to predict a looming asthma attack in an individual so that early intervention methods can mitigate if not prevent the episode entirely.