07 Dec How Digital Tools Are Closing the Gap in Respiratory Care
Today, we are honored to speak with Professor Dr. Frederik Trinkmann, Executive Senior Physician at the Department of Pulmonology and Respiratory Medicine at the Thorax Clinic in Heidelberg. Professor Dr. Trinkmann is a well-recognized clinician and scientist in Respiratory Medicine, Bioinformatics, and digital health integration.
He brings deep expertise in respiratory care, therapy optimization, and the use of innovative digital tools to support better outcomes for patients with asthma and COPD and infectious diseases. Welcome, Frederik.
1. In your clinical work, what’s the most common issue you observe when patients need to use their inhaled therapies?
In daily practice, the most frequent problems I see are related to incorrect inhaler handling and adherence we don’t know. Many patients either do not use their inhaler as prescribed or they make handling errors that may significantly affect drug delivery, such as not exhaling before inhalation, insufficient inspiratory flow, or failing to hold their breath after the inhalation maneuver. These seemingly small mistakes can, however, result in undosing, even when patients believe they are fully adherent.
2. There’s an increasing interest for digital health tools, especially now in respiratory care. Why do you think these tools are needed and how would they help clinicians and patients?
Digital tools are increasingly important because I think they close a major gap between occasional monitoring during clinical visits and the continuous reality of patient lives. Inhaler use, symptoms, and adherence fluctuate from day to day, and clinicians usually see only a snapshot of that.
By providing real-time feedback and objective data on how patients use their inhalers, digital tools make these invisible aspects of care visible. They empower patients to understand and improve their own technique and adherence, and they help clinicians to make more informed, personalized treatment decisions.
And ultimately, these tools will transform respiratory care from a reactive to more proactive approach, enabling remote patient monitoring, early intervention, and hopefully, better long-term outcomes.
3. You’ve recently engaged with the digital tool of Vision Health, the Kata® app. What do you think makes Kata® unique compared to traditional training tools or sensor-based inhaler add-ons?
So today, most of the digital inhaler tools mainly focus on adherence reminders. They will tell you whether a patient has inhaled today or not.
What makes the Kata® app different is that it goes far beyond this binary information. It combines objective inhalation monitoring with real-time AI driven feedback and coaching, helping patients to continuously improve their inhaler technique rather than just reminding them to use it. This transforms inhalation from a passive routine into an active running process. This is the patient perspective.
And from a clinician’s perspective, Kata® is also a unique data collection platform because it provides real-time insights into respiratory adherence, technique, and patient experience, which can help tailor therapy and then inform broader research on treatment behavior in daily life.
4. Speaking of daily life, so how do you think patients and clinicians should adopt? How should they use it in their daily respiratory care?
So, I think adoption must be a shared effort between clinicians and patients.
Physicians, of course, play a key role in recommending and integrating these tools in daily care. Patients will not do this on their own unless they understand the value and feel supportive, of course. That is why education and engagement is crucial on both sides.
Once in use, I think digital tools can provide personalized coaching and remote monitoring, helping patients to stay engaged and confident in managing their receipts. At the same time, they generate unique adherence and inhalation data that can guide data-driven decisions, predicting complications early, for example, optimizing therapy, or even help in choosing the right inhaler.
So in this way, digital health becomes a bridge between the clinic and real-life, hopefully enabling truly personalized and proactive respiratory care.
What are your thoughts on the respiratory gap? Let us know in the comments!