Technology Interventions for Nonadherence: New Approaches to an Old Problem

Nonadherence to asthma medications is well recognized. Interventions to improve adherence, however, have been only moderately successful and are not often adopted because of limited provider time, training, or institutional support. The potential for mobile communication technology to improve adherence has gathered sharply growing interest. Technology-based adherence tracking devices have been in existence for almost 3 decades, but have only recently reached a level of reliability and utility to be considered in allergy practice. Adherence intervention technology includes smartphones, apps, and a growing number of potential new asthma uses such as inhaler technique assessment, portable fractional exhaled nitric oxide devices, and GPS activity trackers with environmental contaminant alerts. As technology has advanced, new capability has emerged including drawing information from electronic health records to tailor automated interventions, give real-time feedback to patients, leverage incentives, utilize predictive logarithms that identify patients at exacerbation risk, and initiate an intervention. Technology development moves faster than clinical trial tests of these new interventions, and gaps in evidence will need to be closed. As researchers establish cost effectiveness, sustainability, and patient and provider acceptance, technology-based adherence intervention systems are likely to be increasingly adopted into small and large practice settings.