VEA: Asthma Self-Management

Iris Ritsma

Iris designed a tool to help asthma patients self-manage through personalisation, increased awareness and structured tools.

Asthma is one of the most common chronic diseases worldwide and its prevalence is expected to increase in the coming years. Medical self-management by asthma patients will be essential to minimise the burden of disease. However, research suggests that most patients are unable to effectively self-manage their asthma due to beliefs, low motivation and lack of skills. Iris focused her graduation project on overcoming these barriers.

The project began with an extensive literature review to identify potential barriers to medical self-management. User research was conducted in the form of context mapping with asthma patients and clinicians to gain a better understanding of the project context. Based on the research findings, six design proposals were developed. The final concept was developed through simulation and testing with patients.

VEA is a self-management tool for asthma patients that consists of an app and a physical device. The app allows the user to set goals and supports the user in achieving these goals. By working on the goals, the app learns about the user and becomes personalised. The physical device supports the app by measuring the air quality in the user’s home and providing feedback. The benefits of VEA are that it is personalised, the user is in control and it increases the user’s ability to self-manage their asthma.

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