Internet Telehealth for Pediatric Asthma Case Management: Integrating Computerized and Case Manager Features for Tailoring a Web-Based Asthma Education Program

This article reports on the development of a personalized, Web-based asthma-education program for parents whose 4-to 12-year-old children have moderate to severe asthma. Personalization includes computer-based tailored messages and a human coach to build asthma self-management skills. Computerized features include the Asthma Manager, My Calendar/Reminder, My Goals, and a tailored home page. These are integrated with monthly asthma-education phone calls from an asthmanurse case manager. The authors discuss the development process and issues and describe the current randomized evaluation study to test whether the yearlong integrated intervention can improve adherence to a daily asthma controller medication, asthma control, and parent quality of life to reduce asthma-related healthcare utilization. Implications for health education for chronic disease management are raised.