The expert network and electronic portal for children with respiratory and allergic symptoms: rationale and design.

Data on baseline characteristics of children with asthma to predict individual treatment responses are lacking. We aimed to set up a data-collection system which can easily fill this gap in clinical practice.A web-based application was developed, named 'Portal for children with respiratory and allergic symptoms', hereafter called Electronic Portal (EP). It contains health- and disease-related questionnaires on respiratory- and allergic diseases. All patients, 1-18 years of age, with respiratory- and/or allergic complaints are invited to enter the EP before their first visit. By using the EP large amounts of data, gathered during routine patient care can be used for research purposes. This may help to further investigate the different treatment related asthma phenotypes and will be helpful to monitor risk factors for other atopic diseases and respiratory infections.