Leaps in information technology are making it possible for doctors and nurses to use telephone lines and mobile phones to monitor the condition of asthma patients in their homes.
Fumio Kokubu, a doctor of internal medicine at Showa University Hospital in Tokyo, relies on a device that assesses the condition of asthma patients by measuring their peak flow -- top breath speed -- three times a day and has the patients send the data to the hospital via telephone lines.
The U.S.-made device, which resembles a hand-held game machine with a liquid crystal display, transmits a numerical representation of the patient's breathing rate, which immediately shows if the patient is in distress, Kokubu said. The numbers get lower as the patient's condition worsens and the respiratory passage narrows.