EFA

Jury member Anne Elisabeth Eriksrud, Norwegian Asthma and Allergy Association, with Johanna Edoff, Medituner (AsthmaTuner). All the credits are reserved to © EFA/Elio Germani.

Rewarding the asthma and COPD digital care innovators

EFA is delighted to announce the winners of EFA Patients’ Digital Prize winners for 2023. These awards honour those who have made significant contributions to the development of e-health technologies for asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease care. The Prize Winners were announced during the award ceremony on 27 April in Ghent, Belgium in the presence of EFA's 45 patient organisations from 26 countries, to benefit from structured exchanges with the European asthma and COPD patient community. 

A Prize from patients to reward patient-centred technology for respiratory diseases

EFA awarded the first edition of the EFA Patients' Digital Prize for e-health technologies for asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) care. Whether they are connected medical devices, telemedicine, e-health apps or digital health platforms, chronic respiratory disease patients need to be at the core of the technologies that support them self-managing their care and getting support from their healthcare professionals. This was the principle behind the work of the jury, which selected one winner in each of the three competition categories: AsthmaTuner by Medituner AB won in the best digital technology for asthma care, RespiraSense by PMD Solutions triumphed in the best digital technology for COPD care category, and NuvoAir Home from NuvoAir earned the award for best digital technology for both asthma and COPD care.

EFA Patients' Digital Prize at the Awards Ceremony in Ghent, Belgium with EFA's members associations. All the credits are reserved to © Elio Germani.

A European recognition from patients

The applicants for the EFA Patients’ Digital Prize fulfilled a thorough questionnaire that served to evaluate the development process and assess their solutions against six crucial criteria: accessibility, partnership with healthcare professionals, convenience, support and security, prevention, and equity.

Announcement of the EFA Patients' Digital Prize Winners, from left to right, Myles Murray, PMD Solutions, Johanna Edoff, Medituner (AsthmaTuner), Helen Parrott, NuvoAir.

All the credits are reserved to © EFA/Elio Germani.

AsthmaTuner, from Medituner AB is a digital medical device distributed in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and the USA. It is used as a self-management device for patients with asthma. The app allows patients to have instant and objective instructions on how to adjust treatment based on the variability of their disease.

RespiraSense, from PMD Solutions is an accurate, motion tolerant and continuous respiratory rate monitor that measures chest and abdomen movement associated with the mechanics of breathing.

On the category for best digital technology for both asthma and COPD care, the jury awarded the prize to NuvoAir Home from NuvoAir, which is a platform designed to enable data sharing between healthcare professionals and people with long-term respiratory conditions. This allows clinicians to make faster decisions while helping patients to understand better their lung health.

All the applicants acknowledged the Terms of Reference for the competition. The award ceremony recordings are accessible on YouTube.

Selection Process

To determine the winners of each category, an EFA Office-selected panel of six persons agreed to the Terms of Reference for Jury Members. The jury included an asthma patient representative from EFA Members, a COPD patient representative from EFA Members, a young asthma patient from the European Allergy & Asthma Youth Parliament, a healthcare professional from the respiratory sector, a digital health industry expert, and a representative from EFA Sustainable Corporate Partners (pharma), which support the EFA DI_GIT project with unrestricted grants.

The 2023 jury members were:

• Armando Ruiz, International Manager at FENEAR, EFA Board member and DTx Club founder
• Anne Elisabeth Eriksrud, Secretary General at NAAF, Norwegian Asthma and Allergy Association
• Eibhilin Doherty, European Allergy & Asthma Youth Parliament Member
• Richard Pratt, General Practitioner & Digital Health Advisor
• Tino Marti, form ETHEL Secretariat and eHealth Project Manager
• Susanne Brandl, Global Patient Partnership Principal Director at Roche

Jury members Anne Elisabeth Eriksrud, Norwegian Asthma and Allergy Association and Armando Ruiz, EFA's Board Member, Spanish Allergy and Respiratory Diseases Association at the Award Ceremony.
All the credits are reserved to © EFA/Elio Germani.

Disclaimer 

The EFA Patients’ Digital Prize acts purely as a recognition and acknowledgement of digital developments in health which put patients at the heart of digital solutions. The EFA Patients’ Digital Prize does not certify in any form whatsoever the use of an end product that arises from the submission(s). The prize applies only to the digital technology as submitted by the applicant, and not to any subsequent developments of that digital technology. As such, EFA does not take any responsibility for, nor does it recognise any of the further developments of, the submission beyond what has been submitted for the prize consideration.

Acknowledgements

The EFA’s DIG_IT Prize is being made possible thanks to unrestricted grants from EFA’s Sustainable Corporate Partners Chiesi and Roche.
The EFA sponsors for the prize have no responsibility on the winning technologies of the prize for this EFA’s independent project.

Rewarding the asthma and COPD digital care innovators

We are all experiencing an ongoing digital revolution that presents itself with concrete opportunities to improve the lives of people across Europe. But what are the digital tools and solutions that serve patients improve their asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)?

A Prize from patients to reward patient-centred technology for respiratory disease

To take stock of ongoing developments, EFA in 2023 launched a prize to celebrate achievements in the digital health sector that centre asthma and COPD patients’ needs from development to implementation.

EFA Patients' Digital Prize is a recognition granted by patients to reward those digital health initiatives that centre patients through their design, accessibility and efficacy. A prestigious jury has been looking at the pillars for a successful tool, and how the innovators introduce the approaches of co-creation and digital partnership between patients, healthcare providers and solution developers.

Application process 

EFA launched a call to find developers whose digital technology breaks down barriers in equity, promises security, and looks beyond controlling asthma and COPD and towards improving Quality of Life.

Terms of Reference and conditions, the submission form and the evaluation criteria are still available here.

• EFA Patients’ Digital Prize Terms of Reference for Applicants
• EFA Patients’ Digital Prize Terms of Reference for Jury Members
• EFA Patients’ Digital Prize Evaluation grid
• EFA Patients’ Digital Prize Submission form

Applications are closed.

A European recognition from patients

The winners of the EFA Patients’ Digital Prize have been invited to the award ceremony on 27 April in Ghent, Belgium in presence of EFA’s 45 patients organisations in 26 countries, to benefit from structured exchanges with the asthma and COPD patient community in Europe.

The winners have been recognised by patients at European level as forward thinkers, engaged in empowering people with asthma and COPD to improve health outcomes, and key digital health partners.

Learn more about the 2023 winning solutions and the award ceremony.

Selection process

The EFA Patients’ Digital Prize acknowledges digital technologies that fit in one of three disease-focused categories:

• Prize for best digital technology covering asthma.
• Prize for best digital technology covering COPD.
• Prize for best digital technology covering both asthma & COPD.

To choose the winners of each category, a panel of individuals agreeing to the Terms of Reference for Jury Members has been selected by EFA Office in March 2023 that was composed of:

• 1 asthma patients’ representative from EFA Members.
• 1 COPD patients’ representative from EFA Members.
• 1 young asthma patient from the European Allergy & Asthma Youth Parliament.
• 1 healthcare professional from the respiratory sector.
• 1 digital health industry expert.
• 1 representative from the EFA Sustainable Corporate Partners (pharma) that supports the EFA DIG_IT project with unrestricted grants.

A digital seal as a recognition mark

Winners get the right to use the EFA Patients Digital Award seal for two years (until 31 December 2025) to make their achievement visible and recognisable to their customers.

	AsthmaTuner by Medituner AB	AsthmaTuner is a digital medical device distributed in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and the USA. It is used as a self-management device for patients with asthma. The app allows patients to have instant and objective instructions on how to adjust treatment based on the variability of their disease.
	RespiraSense by PMD Solutions	RespiraSense is an accurate, motion tolerant and continuous respiratory rate monitor that measures chest and abdomen movement associated with the mechanics of breathing.
	NuvoAir Home from NuvoAir	NuovoAir Home is a platform designed to enable data sharing between healthcare professionals and people with long-term respiratory conditions. This allows clinicians to make faster decisions while helping patients to understand better their lung health.

Acknowledgements

The EFA’s Patients' Digital Prize is being made possible thanks to unrestricted grants from EFA’s Sustainable Corporate Partners Chiesi and Roche.

The Charter for Digital Asthma and COPD Care is a call to action from patients to healthcare providers and the technology sector. Based off the findings from the EFA DIG_IT report, the charter strengthens the relationship between patients and care providers.

Coming soon!

The DIG_IT factsheets offer the key highlights from the survey from each country. Currently in English, you will soon be able to access them in the countries' official languages too!

Download the Belgium factsheet In French In Dutch	Download the Czech Republic factsheet In Czech
Download the Ireland factsheet	Download the Norway factsheet In Norwegian
Download the Spain factsheet In Spanish

Digital technologies are aimed at making healthcare more efficient, data-driven and patient-centred. Patients with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) have indicated in EFA’s a willingness to embrace tools that empower them and improve outcomes DIG_IT survey. However uptake of innovative devices and services has been slower in healthcare than in other sectors.

The DIG_IT report: Asthma and COPD Patients’ Digital Journey in Europe

In addition to providing a deeper understanding of the benefits, barriers, and concerns around digital health, the project aims to develop insights into the patient digital journey in respiratory health.

By building on insights from the patient community, EFA will ensure that its positions reflect the current perspectives of the association’s members and patients it represents.

The DIG_IT survey findings have been translated into patient recommendations for policymakers, academia, and the technology sector.

Download
the DIG_IT report

The DIG_IT patient survey

The DIG_IT survey was conducted by the European Federation of Allergy and Airways Diseases Patients’ Associations (EFA) in the summer of 2021. It set out to capture the views of asthma and COPD patients on Europe’s digital future. The initiative surveyed close to thousand patients in five countries to understand their needs, perceptions, and use of digital technologies throughout their patient journey.

The DIG_IT survey covered:

• 970 asthma and COPD patients surveyed
• 5 European countries (Belgium, the Czech Republic, Ireland, Norway, and Spain)
• 50 questions on access, diagnosis, treatment, care as well as their views on health data and digital empowerment

The participating countries were selected according to several criteria such as access to digital solutions, impact of COVID 19 on national healthcare systems, and with regards to a geographical representation of EFA’s European membership. In addition, EFA preferred to conduct the survey in countries where no much data on digitalisation in the respiratory area were available. 

View
the DIG_IT questionnaire

Acknowledgements

The EFA’s DIG_IT Project, survey and survey report have been funded with unrestricted grants from EFA’s Sustainable Corporate Partners Astra Zeneca, Chiesi, MSD, OM Pharma and Roche.

EFA thanks our Asthma and COPD Working Group of Members for their insights and vision throughout this project from their national perspectives.

EFA deeply thanks the 970 asthma and COPD patients who participated in the survey and the EFA Members for their advice and sustained support in this project.