United States: Researchers say that a new digital tool can identify those children who are at risk of childhood asthma.
The tool analyses electronic health data records and estimates an asthma risk score of children based on the results of the research published recently in eClinical Medicine.
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It depends on data that is regularly gathered as a part of the healthcare history of the kids, according to the researchers.
According to the lead researcher Arthur Owora, who is an associate professor of pediatrics at the Indiana University School of Medicine, “Our hope is that using the childhood asthma passive digital marker in clinical practice will improve the early detection of asthma risk in high-risk children, allowing for earlier interventions that could improve asthma control and lessen the future risk of hospitalization,” US News reported.
A new digital tool can flag kids who are at risk for developing childhood #asthma, researchers say in a new report. https://t.co/fTa0WQg8q7
— HealthDay News (@HealthDayTweets) June 17, 2025
In the research, the tool was employed to traverse data pertaining to over 69,000 kids born during 2010-2017 in Indiana, of which around 8 percent had been identified to have asthma on or after reaching the age of four.
Results indicate that the digital instrument was more effective at predicting children at age three who were at a higher risk of experiencing asthma as a child.
Researchers discovered that the tool actually predicted asthma in 37 percent of the children when compared to 26 percent with an older version of the pediatric asthma risk score.
Some results indicate that pneumonia and bronchiolitis are among the strongest predictors of childhood asthma, the study adds.
Researchers concluded that the new tool would be a convenient method of assisting doctors to identify the children who are at high risk of developing asthma.
“This passive digital marker is very scalable because it requires zero additional minutes from the clinical team by using the already captured data in the electronic health record,” as per senior researcher Dr. Malaz Boustani, who is the director of the IU Center for Health Innovation and Implementation Science, said in a news release, as US News reported.
Early detection of asthma should assist parents and children to avert the asthma stimulators better and use asthma aerosolizers adequately, according to researchers.