Table 3 Eligibility criteria

• Patients with physician-diagnosed asthma as recorded in the medical records

• Any person who is acutely unwell and requires emergency management at the time of the consultation

• Aged 18 years and above (based on the Malaysian Age of Majority Act 1971 that allows them to make a medical decision on their own [32].)

• People unable to participate in interviews (e.g., severe hearing/speech impairment) in the most widely used languages in Malaysia (Bahasa Malaysia, English)

• Patients who use an inhaled corticosteroid (preventer inhaler) daily

• Unable to give informed consent (e.g., cognitive impairment, learning disability)

• People with limited health literacy (defined as an index of < 33 on the validated health literacy scale (HLS-Asia Q47))

• At the discretion of the doctor because of overriding medical conditions or social issues (e.g., terminal illness, recent very distressing life event)

• Patients who are android phone users (the mobile operating system we used for our prototype)