Mobile apps to help treat asthma and COPD patients

Patients with respiratory conditions, such as asthma and COPD, are being encouraged to use apps to manage their symptoms.

Featuring videos on how to us inhalers correctly and learn breathing techniques, the mobile software also works to capture data, which allows medical professionals to track patients.

Bradford GP Dr Katherine Hickman, respiratory lead for West Yorkshire, said the apps, which are being rolled out in the county after a successful trial in Wales, had shown improvements in patients' self-management, symptom control and confidence.

"It's not just about inhalers. This is about patients having agency and more control over their respiratory conditions," she said.

Hickman said the COPDhub, Asthmahub and Asthmahub for Parents were free to download and were supporting patients to manage their conditions "even better than they probably are already".

She said data from the Welsh trial showed the apps decreased the number of appointments patients have with a GP and A&E admissions.

"They are using their reliever inhalers less and are also more likely to be using a dry powdered inhaler, which has a lower carbon footprint than a metred-dose inhaler. So really compelling evidence," she said.

Hickman said Bradford had a high rate of respiratory conditions among the population often worsened by poor air quality.

Bradford Council was ordered to improve the city's air quality by the government in 2018, with a Clean Air Zone introduced in 2022.

In December 2025, a report found pollution levels had dropped in most areas of the city but three areas remain above legal levels.

"Air pollution is particularly bad for patients with asthma. But also we still have one of the highest prevalence of smokers in the UK in Bradford as well," said Hickman.

"It is a conversation I'm having more often with patients. It's really interesting when you push them, they will say 'if I'm stood trying to cross a road and the traffic's busy, I can feel my chest getting tight or if I'm stuck in traffic and I have the window open, I can feel my breathing get worse'.

"We know air pollution causes worsening of respiratory symptoms. And actually patients are great advocates for improving air pollution because once they've made that link, why should I be suffering because of cars polluting the atmosphere or wood burning stoves?," she said.

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