Someday Soon, Inhalers Such As This One May Be "Smarter"

At one of my former jobs, my then-manager once told me that a cousin of his had suddenly died from an asthma attack.  Saddened as I was for his loss, I became more concerned about my own wife, who suffers from asthma as well (the adult onset type, or as she likes to call it – “a parting gift from Philip Morris”).

According to the Center for Disease Control, as of 2007 Asthma affected over 16 million people in the United States.  And the number of cases is increasing.  For years, scientists have been researching into the environmental factors that contribute to asthma.  But to solve a problem, one must first understand a problem.  To do that one needs to have data – LOTS and LOTS of data.

Such a need led to an interesting collaboration between David Van Sickle, a University of Wisconsin epidemiologist and researcher and Edward Olson, CEO of SiliconSky GPS.  Van Sickle’s goal was to better understand what triggers asthma, and how to combat the problem.  Together, they have created an AGPS-enabled, standard asthma inhaler – one that “would allow tracking of inhaler use trends, including exact time and geographic location of uses.”

From knowing the time and place, scientists could then extrapolate additional information (e.g. – air quality, temperature, humidity, pollen count, etc.) to deduce which specific factors served as the triggers for that event.

What is so revolutionary about this technological augmentation is that the GPS system doesn’t add much more volume to the standard inhaler, roughly the amount of (coincidentally) “a Zippo Lighter” says Olson.  Currently in beta-manufacturing, a large number of the devices are being used in Van Sickle’s program at the U of W and “meaningful data is now being collected to assist with asthma research.”

Granted – this is not the first time that technology has been used to better track the patterns of societal illness or behaviors.  Google.org has set up Google Flu Trends, a map overlay to track the progression of the influenza virus.  Dash collects real-time data from their GPS network to update traffic conditions to their GPS units in real time to help drivers avoid traffic congestion.

Nonetheless, I wish Olson, Van Sickle and Van Sickle’s program continued success.

So my question for you is: What social issue do you think could benefit from a technologically-augmented solution?

ps – World Asthma Day 2009 is coming.  I encourage you to find out more about it here.

SiliconSky GPS Designs First AGPS-Enabled Asthma Inhaler for Landmark Research Program