A trial with 220 Auckland children has proved that a "smart inhaler" that beeps when its user forgets to puff from it can dramatically reduce asthma symptoms.
The device, developed by a New Zealand company, can be set to play animal sounds or songs at the times each day that children need to take a puff of preventive medication.
The trial found that 110 children who did not get the smart device remembered to take their puffs at the right time only 30 per cent of the time.
But 110 children who were given the smart inhaler puffed at the right time 84 per cent of the time -- a 54 per cent difference.
The children without the reminders ended up coughing so badly they had to use reliever medications on a median 17.4 per cent of the days in the six-month trial.
For the children who got the noisy reminders, that plunged to 9.5 per cent of the days.
Dr Doug Wilson, a former vice-president of an American pharmaceutical company who now chairs the Nexus6 company that makes the device, said: "If these results were from the use of a new medication, that would be the blockbuster medication of the decade."
Company founder Garth Sutherland, who was diagnosed with asthma six months after he was born in Hamilton 48 years ago and still has it today, said: "For the first time we have shown some tremendous benefits with the smart inhaler."
"What we have is an audio-visual reminder on the smart inhaler that reminds the child, and often the parent too because the parent is often overseeing the medication for the child."
Amy Chan, a doctoral student who was the main organiser of the trial for Auckland University and who had asthma as a child, said the outcome was "hugely exciting".
"What we've been able to establish for the first time with this study is
that the ringtone smart inhaler significantly improves adherence to preventative medication, which results in improved quality of life for children with asthma."
The device clips on to standard asthma inhalers and also records when medication is taken, so patients, their parents and doctors can understand the reasons for any breathing problems.
At the time of the trial in 2010-2012 each device cost about $285.
Nexus6 has raised $6.2 million from private investors including Sir Stephen Tindall and Melbourne-based BioScience Managers, but Mr Sutherland said it would have to raise more this year to negotiate with inhaler manufacturers and funders such as Pharmac to market the device to asthma sufferers.
New Zealand has the world's second-highest rate of asthma, after Britain. A quarter of Kiwi children and a sixth of adults have asthma symptoms during their lives.
By Simon Collins of the New Zealand Herald
