Shona Robson MSP will be lending her support to a new project to combat asthma when she visits Dundee on Tuesday, May 7.
She will visit the information service at Ninewells Hospital, where representatives of the University of Dundee's Asthma Allergy Research Unit and the Tayside Institute of Child Health will be providing information about Asthma in Retreat (AIR).
The new project is a collaboration between the University's Asthma Research Unit, the Tayside Institute for Child Health, the University of Glasgow and Glasgow's Royal Hospital for Sick Children (Yorkhill NHS Trust).
A team are working to develop computerised units for the paediatric wards of Ninewells and Yorkhill hospitals which offer information about asthma to young patients who have suffered an attack. Children can input information about how asthma affects them and the computer will provide a personalised education programme about the best course of management for their condition.
Parents, nurses and GPs will also be encouraged to use the system.
Mark Stewart from the University of Dundee's Asthma Research Unit and part of the AIR team said, " Asthma is the commonest chronic childhood disease in Scotland and it is important that those with the condition are educated about the best way to manage it.
"The aim of the project is to create an educational tool that will be used by children and their parents coming to emergency departments of the Royal Hospital for Sick Children or Ninewells for emergency asthma care.
"We are delighted that Shona Robson is supporting this information day since raising awareness of asthma is crucial if we are to combat it."