A Systems Engineering Approach to a Just-In-Time intervention system

Systems Engineering, a diverse engineering field provides tools and processes to develop efficient systems across different domains. Design thinking, and Agile methodologies are some of the commonly used tools in system design. A mobile health solution using Systems Engineering principle is proposed in managing one of the costliest and common chronic diseases, Asthma. Out of many chronic diseases, Asthma is chosen to be studied, since it has shown a multi-fold increase in the last thirty years. Also, one in nine children in the United States is affected by Asthma. There is no cure for this chronic disease, but it can be controlled by proper medication and symptom tracking. The Just-in-Time Asthma Self-Management and Intervention (JASMIN) is a hybrid mobile application that provides efficient ways for patients to track the asthma symptoms, to learn and get educated about Asthma and their allergens, to communicate and get the necessary support from the care team in the long-term asthma control. JASMIN system is built on a Bio-Behavioral model which encourages and enables the use of system including parents, peers, school personnel and health care providers. JASMIN sends text message interventions to the entire care team when the child fails to track the symptom, ensuring the regularity in symptom adherence. The action plan which is rarely used when written in a physical journal has been given a digital form in JASMIN enabling the provider or parent to update it whenever the need arises. JASMIN is proposed to be used in a pilot study at East Tennessee Children Hospital recruiting 60 children who are between 7-17 years old and their parents and the providers treating their asthma.