MST App supports kids with asthma

Paediatrician Boony Thio was looking for a method to make asthma patients move more, to stimulate them to have more contact with their peers and a way to better monitor children in between hospital visits. Games is the go-to appealing topic. Remember how Pokémon Go got children and young people to move outside on a massive scale?

The interactive playground idea, combined with the asthma app is a result of close collaboration between MST, ZGT,  Universiteit Twente and  Roessingh Research and Development. Kids are stimulated to become active using games and technology. Also, they are socially motivated and learn all about exercise and self-monitoring through games.

The doctor knows everything about symptoms and behavioural patterns and the researchers from the Biomedical Signals & Systems and Human Media Interaction (HMI) departments of the UT are pre-eminently at home in wearables, data and monitoring. Roessingh Research and Development is involved because of their knowledge and experience in tracking and monitoring in home situations. The researchers at the UT discover and analyse how patients develop based on trends in data. For example, it can be monitored whether the little patients remain stable or not. The complete package provides relevant information for the patients and their parents, but the doctor as well.

The AIRplay project (self-management for young kids with asthma) is made possible by an innovation voucher by the Pioneers in Health Care Innovation fund. This fund started in 2014 and aims to stimulate collaboration between medical specialists and researchers at the MIRA UT institute. Ultimately this should lead to innovative technologies that improve patient care.