Most people with asthma don't track their symptoms. You feel a little worse, you don't want to bother your doctor, you wait — and then you end up in urgent care with a full flare-up.
That's the problem Dr. Robert Rudin at RAND spent 10 years trying to fix with a simple weekly check-in.
How It Works
Once a week, you answer 5 standardized questions about how you're doing.
You can also record peak flows or take notes, and request a call from your clinic if you need one. But in the trial, most people didn't use the extras.
The real benefit was awareness. Checking in regularly helped patients notice they were getting worse earlier, and ask for help before it became severe.
Why It's Different
Unlike most standalone health apps, this one was designed to be part of your actual care:
Your answers show up as a graph in your record for your next visit
Patients told Rudin they wanted to make most decisions themselves, even when reporting severe symptoms. So the team removed automatic escalation.
What the Trial Found
In a randomized trial of 413 patients across 7 primary care clinics:
Almost 80% were still using it at 12 months — unusually high for a health app
Less than 3% of the time when a call was offered did patients say yes, so it didn't flood clinics with extra calls
Visits got better, because patients and doctors could look at the graph together instead of relying on memory alone: "Oh, what happened on January 3rd? Oh yeah, I had an exacerbation then. I forgot about that."
Overall, it led to a small but statistically significant improvement in asthma-related quality of life.
The app was built as part of a research study with Brigham and Women's Hospital / RAND, not as a general consumer app. It was designed to be used when your clinic enrolls you and recommends it as part of your care, so you may not be able to just download it and use it standalone.
Also, store listings show the last update was in September 2021, so it's not clear how actively it's being maintained now outside of research use.
Rudin sees AI playing two roles next:
Better data — regular between-visit data to help inform treatment plans
Better delivery — once you're already checking in weekly, that same app can deliver personalized education right when you need it
His long-term vision: everyone gets a regular check-in between visits, tailored to how healthy or complex their situation is.
References:
App: BWH Asthma Application (BWH Asthma App) by Brigham and Women's Hospital in partnership with RAND Corporation
Study: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.6219
Podcast: Checking in Between Checkups: An AI App to Track Asthma Symptoms - JAMA+ AI Conversations, AMA Ed Hub
ClinicalTrials.gov: https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT04401332
iOS: Search App Store for "BWH Asthma Application" by Brigham Health
Android: Search Google Play for "BWH Asthma"