New Partnerships in Asthma Care
15 September 2025
NALHN is recruiting children and adults with severe or hard-to-manage asthma to use a new digital care model.
The CareMonitor app – the first to be used for asthma management in SA public hospitals – allows users to track symptoms and triggers and get personalised support from clinicians to help manage their asthma and avoid hospital.
The six-month project is part of Asthma in the North, a wider program focused on improving asthma management in the Northern Adelaide Local Health Network catchment area.
Nurse Unit Manager Michael Palmer says the team will be enrolling 50 children aged over six months and 50 adults with severe asthma that resulted in at least two hospital attendances in a year.
“A lot of people have an asthma management plan, but they might not always feel confident about how to escalate their treatment,” he says.
“The app asks questions to help categorise symptom severity and empowers people through tailored care to make decisions to manage their symptoms.”
Participants in the study will have an asthma action plan reviewed or developed by clinical staff and added to the digital platform.
They will be provided with a home monitoring kit, including a peak flow meter and a spacer for inhalers. They will access the app via a smartphone, tablet or computer, and the data will be available in patients’ NALHN medical records.
They will be asked to log their symptoms at least once a week, or whenever their symptoms change, noting whether their asthma is well-controlled, flaring up, severe or an emergency. The app provides tailored guidance on what actions to take and generates a clinical alert if worsening symptoms are indicated.
Users will be able to receive educational resources from Asthma Australia and will be able to provide feedback that could help improve the app.
In addition to better asthma control, the measures of success will include the rate of corticosteroid use, quality of life and self-management capability, as well as reduced emergency department presentations.
The Asthma Foundation SA has provided $180,000 for the development and trial of the app. The Hospital Research Foundation has provided a $50,000 grant for an evaluation of the Asthma in the North program, which is a partnership between Asthma Australia, the Asthma SA Foundation and NALHN.