Digitally assessed home FEV1 to identify the cause of poorly controlled asthma: A protocol paper for a prospective replicate cohort study

This paper describes the design of a prospective cohort replication study that will evaluate whether digitally acquired data on lung function and medication use can more accurately establish asthma as the cause of symptoms in patients with clinician-diagnosed asthma with uncontrolled disease despite the use of inhaled corticosteroids. The primary aim of the study is to compare the sensitivity and specificity of a novel lung function metric with those of guideline-recommended approaches for diagnosing and assessing asthma. Included participants will be provided with the Vitalograph Asma-1 respiratory monitor, for serial at-home measurements of FEV1 and PEF.