The COPD Foundation’s Pocket Consultant Guide, or PCG, has a dedicated patient and caregiver track, free on iPhone and Android.

Its Daily Log holds My COPD Action Plan with green, yellow and red day outcomes (COPD Foundation).

Say a pulmonology visit is two weeks away. Your dad rates everyday jobs in Goal Setting and adds questions under For My Next Visit.

• Videos show inhaler, nebulizer and exercise technique.
• Goal Setting rates everyday jobs like cleaning or making the bed.
• A For My Next Visit page collects visit questions for the appointment.
• A wallet card holds medications and immunizations.

With those pages printed the night before, the conversation starts from his own notes.

The trade-off: PCG is an educational guide, and its green, yellow and red steps come from the plan your clinician writes with you.

Fill in the action plan together at the next appointment, then keep a printed copy where helpers can find it. The App Store listing shows an older update, so test saving and reopening one entry first.

myCOPD, from my mhealth, lives inside the my mhealth app, with iPhone, Android and web access (my mhealth).

The COPD module bundles an education course, online pulmonary rehabilitation and a self-management plan (product page).

On a rehab day, the Today screen lines up a COPD review checklist, the diaries and an air quality card. For someone doing rehab at home, that turns a vague goal into a short daily routine.

• Inhaler videos let the person pick their own device and watch the technique.
• A medication diary logs doses beside an activity diary for exercise.
• Local weather and pollution forecasts help plan each outing.
• The optional COPD 360 community, run by the COPD Foundation, adds peer support.

The trade-off is access. The product pages describe the features and leave the enrollment route to your program, so ask the care team or health plan who activates myCOPD and what you pay.

Setup asks for the COPD medications, so have the current list and inhaler names ready (setup steps). Then try one full Today routine together.

EPA’s free AirNow app shows the current Air Quality Index for your area as soon as it opens.

Before a Thursday walk or the drive to rehab, a caregiver checks today’s reading for home and the clinic town.

• A forecast covers the days ahead in any area you choose.
• The map shows PM2.5, PM10 and ozone monitors across North America.
• A smoke icon opens the Fire and Smoke Map (AirNow).
• Saved places make a ten-second check (app features).

It suits a loved one who already has enough journals to keep. In smoke season, a second look at the Fire and Smoke Map before a long drive keeps the day’s plan realistic.

The trade-off: AirNow reports outdoor air at monitoring sites, so it describes the neighborhood, while breathing and indoor air call for their own checks.

Pair the AQI with the activity guidance in the clinician’s plan. Setup takes one step: save home, the clinic and each family address. When every helper saves the same places, whoever drives sees the same reading.

Hailie, from Adherium, pairs a small sensor with the free Hailie Care app.

The sensor attaches to a supported inhaler and logs each dose automatically, with a technique score, for controller and rescue inhalers (App Store).

Usage travels over Bluetooth to the app and to a portal your clinician can review between visits (Hailie).

• The activity log gives each puff a time stamp.
• A weekly ring shows planned inhalations taken, day by day.
• The clinician sees a record built by the device itself.
• Controller and rescue inhalers each get their own record.

Think of a spouse who keeps asking about the morning puffs, or a loved one unsure whether the rescue inhaler came out overnight. The time-stamped log answers both questions.

The trade-off is hardware. Each sensor matches a specific inhaler model, and sensors sell online through the brand's own Hailie store.

Confirm the exact inhaler model and total cost first. Then ask the clinician how they read technique scores and who on the family side may view the data.

Wellinks is a virtual respiratory care program with an app.

Eligible members get a welcome kit of home monitoring devices, 1:1 coaching and virtual pulmonary rehabilitation (Wellinks).

In the first week, a coach helps set up the welcome kit devices, so the first readings reach the care team.

• Respiratory specialists and nurses back each member’s coaching.
• A 24/7 nurse triage line coordinates care between visits.
• A virtual support group connects people living with chronic respiratory disease.
• Bluetooth devices pair through the app, with support articles for connection trouble.

In the app, the home screen asks how your loved one feels today, then shows the zone for that answer, the next coaching appointment and a guided pulse oximetry reading.

Reports chart seven days of oxygen saturation and pulse, which gives the coach and your loved one something concrete to discuss at each call (App Store).

The trade-off is eligibility: call enrollment at 1-877-220-9465 to check whether you qualify, and ask which devices, costs and family involvement your plan includes (Wellinks). Write those questions down before you call.

COPD Manager, from @Point of Care, is a free daily journal for symptoms, mood, pain and medications.

Its sliders turn each day into charts of mood, pain, medications and journaling frequency (App Store).

• Entries export and charts print for appointments (listing details).
• Medication reminders sit alongside, and tapering schedules go straight onto the calendar.
• Caregivers connect to the account by QR code.
• A photo upload helps show a visible symptom to the care provider.
• The Learn More section carries printable COPD education for the family folder.

Before a pulmonology visit, your mom fills in the symptom survey on her iPad, from chest tightness to morning cough. You print last month’s chart together, so the visit starts from her own record.

The trade-off is track record: the app is built for iPad and iPhone, and the App Store listing shows 2.0 from four ratings, a small sample (App Store).

Register, save one entry and reopen it on the same device before making it the main record. The latest version is 11.0.9.