Telehealth Follow-Up Appointments Effective Alternative to Maintaining Asthma Disease Control

Recent research published in Tüberküloz ve Toraks demonstrated that telemedicine plays an essential role in controlling asthma. Through telehealth visits, patients were able to follow-up with their health care professional without traveling to in-person visits while still maintaining disease control.¹

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Telehealth is a health service that aims to improve the health of patients through communication via technologic methods. This method can provide patients with diagnoses, treatment evaluation, and preventative medicine without meeting with a health care provider in-person at a clinic or institution.¹ In addition to virtual appointments and communication, telehealth can also involve remote patient monitoring, e-consults, and mHealth, known as mobile health.²

As social restrictions were applied during the COVID-19 pandemic, telehealth became a popular method for patients to continue to receive care from health care professionals. Prior to the pandemic, telehealth was utilized very little in asthma care, but with easier accessibility, some patients continue to utilize this method of receiving asthma care.²

Authors of a 2022 study published in Current Allergy and Asthma Reports had found that asthma care via telehealth can revolutionize how asthma care is provided to patients. Although barriers to technology (eg, lack of digital literacy, lack of internet, cyber risks) will continue to exist, virtual appointments can continue to be a viable solution for patients who are physically unable to attend in-person appointments.²

Further, the authors noted that telehealth helped improve access to specialist care, particularly in lower socioeconomic areas, which are more likely to have a lack of asthma care and other specialty care. They also emphasize that guidelines to determine when telehealth visits are inappropriate for asthma care as well as research to compare virtual with in-person appointments are needed.²

In 2024, study authors aimed to assess if asthma follow-up care was effective through telehealth methods. This study enrolled 328 patients aged 18 to 65 years who were diagnosed with asthma. The clinical evaluations and scale results of these patients were conducted at least 3 times by 1 health care professional via telehealth applications. A control group consisted of routine control results from asthma patients, who were reachable through hospital records prior to the pandemic, covering a 1-year period. Data from October 1, 2019, to October 1, 2020, were recorded and included in the study.¹

According to the findings, there were no statistically significance between patients who attended telehealth follow-up appointments and those who attended face-to-face (p > .05). There was a slight decrease in asthma control test scores at the time of follow-up, but it was not considered statistically significant (p > .05). Additionally, a statistically significant difference was observed in patients with severe, persistent asthma because of the comparison of participants’ asthma control test results in follow-up according to disease severity (p < .05). Further, when the effect of the presence of comorbidity on asthma control test results in follow-up was examined, statistically significant results were obtained (p < .05).¹

Experts note that although virtual visits may not always be “appropriate” for asthma care², telehealth appointments could be an effective alternative to in-person follow-ups for patients who were considered eligible. Asthma is a disease that requires close monitoring, and the positive findings indicate that virtual telehealth appointments will likely continue to have significance in disease control.¹

REFERENCES

1. Şimşek ŞM, Kizilirmak D, Havlucu Y. The effectiveness of telemedicine methods in the follow-up of asthma in the COVID-19 pandemic process. Tuberk Toraks. 2024;72(4):268-279. doi:10.5578/tt.202404935

2. Persaud YK. Using Telemedicine to Care for the Asthma Patient. Curr Allergy Asthma Rep. 2022;22(4):43-52. doi:10.1007/s11882-022-01030-5