Patient and public involvement workshop to shape artificial intelligence-supported connected asthma self-management research

Digital interventions with artificial intelligence (AI) can potentially support people with asthma to reduce the risk of exacerbation. Engaging patients throughout the development process is essential to ensure usability of the intervention for the end-users. Using our Connected for Asthma (C4A) intervention as an exemplar, we explore how patient involvement can shape a digital intervention. Seven Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) colleagues from the Asthma UK Centre for Applied Research participated in four advisory workshops to discuss how they would prefer to use/interact with AI to support living with their asthma, the benefit and caveats to use the AI that incorporated asthma monitoring and indoor/outdoor environmental data. Discussion focussed on the three most wanted use cases identified in our previous studies. PPI colleagues wanted AI to support data collection, remind them about self-management tasks, teach them about asthma environmental triggers, identify risk, and empower them to confidently look after their asthma whilst emphasising that AI does not replace clinicians. The discussion informed the key components in the next C4A interventions, including the approach to interacting with AI, the technology features and the research topics. Attendees highlighted the importance of considering health inequities, the presentation of data, and concerns about data accuracy, data privacy, security and ownership. We have demonstrated how patient roles can shift from that of ‘user’ (the traditional ‘tester’ of a digital intervention), to a co-design partner who shapes the next iteration of the intervention. Technology innovators should seek practical and feasible strategies to involve PPI colleagues throughout the development cycle of a digital intervention; supporting researchers to explore the barriers, concerns, enablers and advantages of implementing digital healthcare.