Tuesday, 29 April 2025
More than 2.2 million Australian people with asthma could benefit from life-changing digital inhaler technology which has the potential to save lives and ease the burden on Australia’s strained healthcare system.
Approximately 2.8 million Australians have a diagnosis of asthma and studies have found that more than 80 per cent of asthma patients do not use their inhaler correctly, which can lead to flare ups leading to presentations to emergency departments and hospitalisations.
Melbourne-based medtech company Adherium, which provides real-time feedback to patients via the Hailie® App, utilises a combination of remote monitoring and data management solutions to help patients with asthma use their inhaler in the best way to ensure sufficient medication is delivered to the lungs, in order to reduce the likelihood of uncontrolled symptoms and flare ups.
This technology assesses the quality of a patient’s inhalation and technique-related metrics on their smartphone and provides daily reminders to take their preventer inhalers.
This data allows for clinicians to ensure that treatment plans can be optimised to achieve good asthma control and asthma-related quality of life.
After using the Adherium devices and the Hailie® technology, asthma sufferer Linda has gone from having five emergency department and hospital admissions in 2023 to no attendances to an emergency department or admissions to hospital in 2024.
“I have suffered from severe asthma for my entire life and embracing this technology has helped me to reduce the severity of my attacks,” she said.
“My Asthma Control Test score has improved by 60 per cent.”
Dr. William McCann, a prominent Allergist and long-time advocate for advanced respiratory care solutions, said this tool gives sufferers the support they need.
“I have suspected for years that patients struggling with their asthma are either not taking their medication regularly or not taking it properly,” he said.
“We have not seen the health improvements we should be getting from asthma therapies.
“This technology helps patients get their treatment right by not only helping them remember when to use their medication but ensure they are doing it correctly. It supports patients, their families and their health care provider to have the right discussions about their inhaler technique and the regularity with which they take their medicine, which leads to better quality of life and outcomes.”
The technology is proving successful in the United States with the US Government approving in 2022 the reimbursement of Remote Therapeutic Monitoring for patients with respiratory conditions using Smartinhalers like Adherium’s Hailie.
“We have achieved great results in the US and collected significant amounts of data which underlines the value that the Hailie® technology can deliver to patients and the broader health system,” Adherium interim chief executive Jeremy Curnock Cook said.
“The next step for us is to undertake demonstration pilots back home in Australia to prove the impact the Hailie Technology can have on patients with asthma”
“We will be seeking funding from the Australian Government so we can help deliver this technology for about 5000 people with severe asthma over three years across 10 of the Australian Government’s Urgent Care Clinic.
“While the health benefits for our patients are our primary focus, there are enormous potential cost savings for both federal and state governments through a reduction in the frequency of presentations to emergency departments and hospitalisations.
“We know our health system is under immense pressure across Australia and the widespread use of our technology has the potential to ease the load on our frontline health workers and improve lives.”
There were 56,600 emergency department presentations for asthma in Australia and 25,500 hospitalisations where the principal diagnosis was asthma in 2020-21, costing an estimated $851.7 million in healthcare expenditure.
“We want to give patients the best chance for improved health outcomes with and the most appropriate treatment,” Mr Curnock Cook said.
“Without knowing whether patients are using their inhalers correctly, doctors could be currently prescribing expensive medication at taxpayer expense to patients at about $30,000 a year when they only require more standard medication which costs about $1,000 a year.”
For more information, head to https://www.adherium.com/
Media contact: Tom Wald I 0411 305 449