MyAirCoach, new EU research project on asthma and COPD
We are happy to announce that next January EFA will be involved in a new EU research project funded by Horizon 2020, the newest and biggest European Commission Research and Innovation programme. The project is called MyAirCoach and stands for “Analysis, modelling and predictive simulation of both physiological and environmental factors for the customized treatment optimization of Asthma and COPD”. The project will officially start with a kick-off meeting in Thessaloniki, Greece next January. MyAirCoach aims to develop a holistic mHealth personalised asthma monitoring system to empower patients managing their own health. The outcomes will provide user-friendly tools to increase awareness of their clinical state and effectiveness of their medical treatment. This will be achieved through the 
development of a sensor-based inhaler that will be in continuous communication with a mobile device. This infrastructure will have the capability of automated monitoring of several clinical, behavioural and environmental factors in realistic conditions that will ensure clinical state awareness and a timely optimal treatment. In addition, a "personal mHealth guidance system" will allow patients to customize their treatment towards personalised pre-set goals and guidelines, either automatically or driven by healthcare professional in a telemedicine manner. In this sense, MyAirCoach will give clinicians early indications of increasing symptoms or exacerbations, while making an important contribution in successfully self-management of asthma. EFA will be involved in the dissemination activities to promote findings and results to EFA members, patients and the general public. This includes asthma guidelines and recommendations for patients with asthma to promote compliance to medication and avoid risks. EFA will also contribute to other work packages by co-chairing and achieving a Patient Representatives Board and by assembling a dedicated Consultative Patient Forum (CPF) for the duration of the project, that will provide feedback from patient experts, assure inclusion of the patients’ perspective across all project Work Packages, and ensure the disease management models addresses users’ specific needs and will be understandable for its lay target group. EFA will call members and asthma patients to participate actively in the project for clinical validation of the implemented sensor-based system.
EFA participation in MeDALL Project Meeting
Last 20th and 21st November, EFA participated in a MeDALL (Mechanisms of the Development of Allergy) meeting in the Norwegian Directorate of Health in Oslo. During the first day, the consortium representatives attended a conference focused in particular on the Norwegian Public Health Report and Action Plan in allergy and asthma (A.M. Fosse, K. Lødrup Carlsen), the new outcomes and exploitation opportunities from the Finnish allergy programme (T. Haahtela) and the outcomes, strategy and integration of MeDALL (J.M. Anto, J. Bousquet). An open discussion followed the conference to discuss how to extend or transfer the allergy programs to other European Countries. The second day, restricted to MeDALL consortium partners, provided the opportunity to share the research outcomes of all the project work packages and to define new political and research pathways that will lead to concrete outcomes by the end of the project. EFA will be actively involved in the dissemination project outcomes at European level, and in particular to patients, of the project results: to this end, EFA is planning to organize an event at the European Parliament next spring. During the meeting the consortium received the news that the Commission has officially approved the request for a 6-months extension of the project period. Activities within the MeDALL project will be running until May 2015.