Families that have a child with asthma know the routine: every morning, the child needs to use one inhaler to take their daily maintenance medication to manage the disease. And they have to keep their rescue inhaler handy in case symptoms pop up during the day.
Now, for some kids who have frequent flares, there’s a SMARTer way to manage their asthma.
SMART stands for Single Inhaler for Maintenance And Relief Therapy. With SMART, two medicines are combined in one inhaler, so the child’s care is less complicated but still safe. Both the maintenance medication (daily inhaled corticosteroid) and the rescue medication (long- and RAPID-acting beta-agonists) are inhaled with one or two puffs once or twice a day, and as needed if the child has an asthma flare.