LAUSR

Dear Editor, The short message service (SMS) has become widely used by researchers1 and medical practitioners for chronic disease management programmes.2-4 In Singapore, the eCARE home monitoring service via SMS was developed in 2007 to monitor patients’ asthma symptoms and remind patients to take their medication. The pilot study on discharged in-patients suggested that SMS reminders were effective to improve asthma control scores but did not reduce the number of emergency department (ED) visits or hospital admission. Compliance to responding to SMS messages was high (82%) and the majority of patients (95%) were satisfied with the programme.5 In 2012, adjustments were made to the eCARE programme. In this study, we evaluated the upgraded eCare monitoring system on discharged ED patients. Our primary objectives were to: 1) evaluate the effectiveness of the eCARE programme on asthma control; 2) determine satisfaction level of patients on eCARE programme; and 3) evaluate the health care utilisation amongst patients in eCARE programme with control group.