A ubiquitous community care model for pediatric asthma patients

Abstract

In order to achieve the best outcomes, pediatric patients suffering from chronic illness require support from a variety of caregivers. In this paper, we introduce a social care model for pediatric asthma patients, named the ubiquitous community care model. This model enables community members to monitor and care for children with asthma using technology. The model consists of three sub-models. First, Ubiquitous Care model specifies how caregivers can care the children every day and everywhere. The second component, Blackboard Communication, allows caregivers to 1) share information about their asthma symptoms, 2) store and analyze the communication data among caregivers, 3) increase education by allowing the network to share information, and 4) get smart services such as routine reminder. The final component, Community Care, allows people to play the role of caregivers by monitoring and caring for the child when they need help. This model is based on the findings from the interview data with pediatric asthma patients and their caregivers: their parents and care providers. We contend that our model and findings can be utilized for building ubiquitous monitoring caring systems for pediatric asthma patients. Furthermore, our model can be applied to other chronic conditions such as diabetes and obesity with little modification for their specific features. © 2012 Springer Science+Business Media.