The iPad app helping to control asthma
FIRST ON 7: Children with asthma now have a new tool to help prevent the onset of attacks.
A smartphone app has had a life changing impact on young sufferers who for the first time can monitor and treat themselves.
For Ethan Moar something that seems so normal to most young boys, like riding his bike on the final day of holidays, is still new to him.
The seven-year-old suffers life threatening asthma and uses four ventolin puffers every fortnight.
"I would keep coughing and I wouldn't be able to play with all the kids," he told 7News.
But that has now changed for Ethan who has started using a tablet computer to monitor himself.
"We're very aware it's not a cure for asthma. It is purely a management tool, but it managed so well," his mother Brenda Moar said.
The AsthmaSense App records a 'wheeze rate', and this morning Ethan's was a high at 17 percent.
Preventative medicine dropped it to three per cent, and it has made treating his condition fun.
"I can play my iPad all the time," Ethan said.
Until now, Ethan was hospitalised at least once a month after suffering severe attacks at home, at school and even in his sleep.
The National Asthma Council has also developed an App, which is another portable action plan.
"We're watching very carefully all new developments," the Asthma Council's Kristine Whorlow said.
Research shows the first month back at school is the worst, where the number of hospitalisations triples.
"It's because they've been away from school and all their class mates and they get exposed to colds and flu viruses," Kristine Whorlow said.
This school year Ethan's mother Brenda is confident.
"It's a big thing to let go and give control so this way I still retain a bit of control because I can have the app simultaneously on my phone."
The breathing monitor used with the App costs $169.
