Mobile app helps those with hayfever & asthma

AllerGen investigators contributed to a new interactive app that is helping people with allergic rhinitis (hayfever) and asthma to monitor, understand and better manage their conditions.

MASK-air is a free app, available on Android and iOS, that assists patients to track their symptoms and medication use, assess the impact of symptoms on their quality of life, and create reports for their doctors.

The tool was developed by an international team of patients and allergy experts, including AllerGen investigators Drs Judah Denburg, Paul Keith, Susan Waserman, and Teresa To, and AllerGen trainee Dr. Derek Chu.

Nearly one in five Canadians are affected by allergic rhinitis—an allergic response to specific allergens such as pollen, dust mites, animal dander or saliva, and mould.

MASK-air is a user-friendly logbook that offers data tracking and analysis to help patients and their healthcare professionals pinpoint allergic triggers, predict flare-ups and develop more effective treatment plans. The app, website, and patient support materials are now available in 23 countries.

MASK-air is one of the many health tools to emerge from the Allergic Rhinitis and its Impact on Asthma (ARIA) international initiative, a global organization that collaborates with the World Health Organization (WHO) through the Global Alliance Against Chronic Respiratory Diseases (GARD).

ARIA has developed a new allergic rhinitis classification; guidelines for the diagnosis and management of allergic rhinitis and asthma; pocket guides and treatment algorithms for physicians; and is now focused on the implementation of emerging technologies for individualized and predictive medicine.