Mobile video directly observed therapy can be used to improve at-home inhaler technique in children with asthma

We were very pleased to read the article “Comparison of inhalation technique with the Diskus and Autohaler in asthmatic children at home”, recently published in ERJ Open Research [1]. In that paper, the authors describe using video Directly Observed Therapy (vDOT) to detect children's errors when using their inhalers at home. This is very important, and clearly shows that paediatricians and asthma specialists can wrongly assume that if a child can demonstrate correct inhaler technique in the clinic, they will continue to use correct inhaler technique when at home. The authors also report that errors were more frequent when the dry-powder Diskhaler was compared with the Autohaler. Most children and parents have mobile smartphones that can be used to record videos while the child uses their inhaler. The timed (stamped with date and time) videos can be submitted to a secure repository. An asthma nurse then can review the video. https://bit.ly/2UyG11W