MyCOPD app helping patients to self-manage their condition.
Posted: - 29th January 2021
myCOPD is an app that can help patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) to self-manage their condition, improve their symptoms, reduce breathlessness and improve overall wellbeing. The app includes lots of useful information and helpful videos from help on how to use an inhaler and monitor COPD symptoms, to taking part in rehabilitation classes online and educational videos to better understand what COPD is.
The collaborative project between the AHSN and West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership is helping to spread the adoption of this application to a variety of health and care services across the region.
Dr Katherine Hickman, a GP and Respiratory Lead for West Yorkshire & Harrogate, said: “For the majority of their time patients with COPD are managing their condition at home by themselves. It is so important that as health care professionals we enable them to do this safely and confidently.
They also need to be able to recognise when they are starting to deteriorate earlier rather than later and to contact their GP before they end up in crisis and needing to go to A&E. MyCOPD is an app that can be used to help us support our patients to manage their COPD independently and reduce their reliance on their GP or hospital. It allows patients to manage their condition with confidence and to gain a true understanding of how they can support themselves to live with COPD. The app contains a whole range of features including:
- inhaler videos
- breathing exercises
- medication diary
- symptoms tracker”
For patients new to using the myCOPD app or to the use of health apps in general, Dr Hickman has produced a video called Tiny Habits. In the video, Dr Hickman, a certified tiny habits coach, provides handy hints and tips to help patients remember to use the app and how to embed its use in daily life.
If you’d like to know more about how you can get involved in the distribution of the myCOPD app in West Yorkshire and Harrogate then please contact us.
To find out more about how to use the MyCOPD app please view the video below.