Institute For The Future

GPS-Enabled Asthma Inhaler May Uncover Triggers

Researchers from the University of Wisconsin have developed a GPS-enabled asthma inhaler that they hope will enable researchers to uncover new environmental triggers for asthma attacks. The pilot study in Madison will equip 50 asthma patients with the inhalers and is aimed at helping public health officials understand general air triggers as well as helping individuals understand personal asthma attack triggers.

For example, the project's lead researcher David Van Sickle notes an asthma outbreak in Spain that caused widespread, and occasionally fatal attacks, saying that, “Barcelona put together a group of scientists to look at the meteorology, climatology, and levels of standard air pollutants and pollens in the city, but there wasn’t anything exceptional about those days." Similarly, individuals often don't notice their own triggers and having that information recorded, Van Sickle hopes, can help patients understand their own symptoms.

In the long run, he hopes that geotracking will enable public health researchers to map and understand disease outbreaks and "target public-health interventions to the places and times when people are really suffering."