Asthma patients from the Interior District of Bizkaia will reduce the number of visits to health centres thanks to telemedicine. This is the goal of the project for overall care of asthma patients undertaken by the Galdakao Hospital and the Arrigorriaga, Abadiño, Amorebieta, Durango and Etxebarri health centres.

The telemedicine project will provide patients with all the information available on their disease so they can take part of their own care, as well as enabling daily monitoring. For this purpose, patients are provided with a PDA that sends the hospitals daily results of a control test based on five questions and a peak-flow measurement.

Thanks to this device, health centres will have timely and accurate information on the patients' blood pressure, respiratory rate, oxygen levels, temperature, the distance they walk each day, their clinical condition and their daily symptoms.

Asthma is a common chronic disease, with high healthcare costs and an estimated incidence of about 5.5 cases/1,000 people/year (6.8 in women, and 4 in men). Therefore, Osakidetza's ultimate goal is to reduce the number of visits to specialists, the most costly ones. The number of patients admitted to the hospital is expected to decrease thanks to the advantages of self-treatment. Depending on the outcomes, this pilot programme may be implemented in other health centrers in the Basque Country.