400 Melburnians to trial world-first thunderstorm asthma app

The city is the thunderstorm asthma capital of the world - and now 400 Melburnians will test a world-first app to see if it will protect hayfever and asthma sufferers.

About 400 Melburnians are set to test a world-first smartphone app to see if it can protect those at risk from deadly thunderstorm asthma.

The city is the thunderstorm asthma capital of the world, but until now there has not been a tool to deliver real-time and specific allergen warnings to the most vulnerable.

In 2016 Melbourne recorded the most severe global thunderstorm asthma event when 10 people died and more than 3400 people needed emergency care.

Today, one in five people in Australia have hayfever, and half of those have asthma.

While there are smartphone apps that flag days of high pollen or impending thunderstorms, this one developed by a team at the Royal Melbourne Hospital (RMH) is a research tool that can be personalised to specific allergens and triggers.

The two-year trial is being led by Professor Jo Douglass, the director of research at the RMH.

She said pollen counts are becoming higher earlier and persisting longer across Melbourne.

The team is recruiting people who have an allergy to grass pollens. They will be given access to the smartphone app, which also uses geolocating to determine where a person is and what they have been exposed to.

“We still don’t know all the causes of thunderstorm asthma,” Professor Douglass said. “We do know that every year there’s a lot of people presenting with seasonal asthma; thunderstorm asthma is like the tip of the iceberg of what is clearly a burden of seasonal asthma that occurs in Melbourne.

One in five people in Australia have hayfever, and half of those have asthma. Image: Supplied.

“Our hope is that this trial will confirm the biomarkers so we can give precise advice to people to enable them to prevent both thunderstorm and seasonal asthma.”

The study is funded by a federal government through a Medical Research Future Fund grant of $2 million and will involve a multidisciplinary team from the RMH and the University of Melbourne.

They will work with all major metropolitan Melbourne hospitals and Asthma Australia to comlete the trial.

“The app gives us comprehensive air quality alongside the symptoms,” Prof Douglass says.

“This capacity to look at what is in the air from pollens, moulds and also particulate pollutions in a live way will be powerful in this study.”

Prof Douglass says the goal will be to identify those most at risk and target them with preventive treatment.

Those at risk:

• People with an allergy to grass pollen

• Prior history of asthma and hay fever

• Severity of hay fever is not an indicator