Active Healthcare Technology Archives

Wearable Asthma Informatics – Future of Asthma Care in Children

An incredible amount of research has gone into childhood asthma in the last few years, leading to deeper understanding of the condition and better care for children with asthma.
New technology hopes to help predict a child’s asthma attacks before they occur. A wearable asthma informatics system is under development as part of an initiative of the US National Institutes of Health.

What is PRISMS?

This new asthma monitoring system is part of the PRISMS Initiative, which stands for Pediatric Research Using Integrated Sensor Monitoring Systems. A team of researchers from University of California-Los Angeles and the University of Southern California are developing an integrated platform of wearable sensors that can gather data about the environment of children with asthma and help predict asthma attacks.

How does the Asthma Informatics Platform Work?

The platform connects a variety of sensors and equipment using bluetooth and wi-fi, compiling all the data for health professionals. The platform includes the following:

Smart Watch: acts as a hub connecting to all other devices during the day and collects bioinformatics like activity level and heart rate.
Air Quality Sensor: attached to backpack or placed nearby and measures very small particulates in the air that can make asthma worse.
Medication Sensor: receptor in inhaler that records when medicine is taken.
Spirometer: measures the volume of breath twice a day, data is automatically sent to the system.
Smartphone app: includes questionnaires to gather data from the child about their environment.

How will PRISMS help asthma care?

With the data that PRISMS collects, medical professionals can identify patterns and help families identify asthma triggers. In the future, a platform like PRISMS could send alerts when sensors detect that an asthma attack is likely.

Overall, using the data from all children in the study, researchers hope to find new trends in childhood asthma. Patterns realized from the data of the children in the study may lead to new treatments and new environmental policies to keep all children healthy.

New Technology will bring better care for children with Asthma

In the future, portable medical health devices may be commonplace, and the data collected from systems like PRISMS will help make asthma care better than ever.

Resources

Predicting Asthma Attacks in Kids – Chemical & Engineering News
PRISMS Initiative – National Institutes of Health
Got Asthma or Allergies? There’s an App for That!

Credit-Card Sized Inhaler Fits in Your Wallet

Image courtesy of Bloom.

I bet I’m not alone in the constant battle to limit the amount of stuff I carry around during the day. With oversized purses in fashion, it’s easy to want to fill up the space in my bag with everything but the kitchen sink. There are so many essentials—medication, hand sanitizer, tissues, lip balm, mints—that add up to a very heavy bag. It’s hard to determine which items I could probably do without. I mean, they’re called essentials for a reason, right? Fortunately, some essentials are getting smaller. The Bloom inhaler—a thin, credit-card sized inhaler for asthmatics—is currently under development. The Bloom inhaler fits neatly into the credit card slot in a wallet, which makes it easy to carry, and simple to access.

How it Works

Users load medication from their typical inhaler canister into the Bloom cartridge that holds up to six doses of medication. Bloom is leak-proof and pressing the device’s trigger dispenses a precise dosage. Medication from any HFA inhaler can be used in Bloom and the device can be refilled over and over. Bloom doesn’t use a mouthpiece, but instead uses the “Open Mouth Technique” which the company likens to “using a breath spray.”

Image courtesy of Bloom.

The Bloom inhaler creators expect the FDA to approve the device by November 2016, but interested customers can reserve one of the inhalers ahead of time by going to the company’s website. Each Bloom device will cost $40. If this device is approved, it could free up some room in my bag for other essentials…not that I need a reason to make my purse any heavier than it already is!

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