Funders:
NHMRC Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF)
 
Collaborators:
Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia 
Queensland Children’s Hospital, Brisbane, Australia
Griffith University, Gold Coast, Australia 
Gold Coast University Hospital, Gold Coast 
Northern Territory Health, Darwin, Australia 
The Children's Hospital at Westmead, Sydney, Australia 
University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia 
Asthma Foundation of the Northern Territory 
Queen Mary University of London 
Aims: 

The study aims to assess if using Wheezescan® digital technology improves the detection of wheeze and subsequent diagnosis of asthma. Further, in children already diagnosed with asthma, if Wheezescan® will help to improve asthma control.  

Objectives:

To better diagnose asthma, a more reliable detection of wheeze is required that can be used when the child visits the doctor’s clinic and, importantly, that parents can use at home. This project will investigate the use of Wheezescan® as a possible digital solution to detect wheeze. Wheezescan® is a small, lightweight, user-friendly portable device. It is the world’s first clinically validated device that can detect wheeze. We will use the device in respiratory clinics and in the child’s home to detect wheeze. 

Summary:

Wheeze is very common in children, with approximately half of all preschool aged children having a wheezing episode. Approximately 40% of these children will have recurrent episodes of wheeze. Wheeze is a breath sound that may indicate asthma or other airway diseases, and hence it is important to accurately diagnose. However, wheeze can be hard for parents to detect and often a child won’t be wheezing when they visit a doctor. This can lead to both under- and over- diagnosis of asthma and inappropriate medication use. 

Implications for policy and practice: 

Wheezescan® has already been shown to be reliable and will give both parents and doctors the ability to more confidently determine if a child has a wheeze. If our study shows that using this digital technology improves our ability to detect preschool wheeze, it will improve the management of this common condition through the accurate diagnosis of preschool asthma. For those children with established asthma diagnosis, it will improve parent self-management and asthma control without a net increase in healthcare costs. 

Chief Investigator:

Professor Anne Chang

Project Manager:

Sophie Worley

Contact information:

Lesley.Versteegh@menzies.edu.au
Rebecca.Challenger@menzies.edu.au 

Project dates:

The project commenced in 2024