Smart Inhalers

We all grew up knowing that one kid who had an inhaler with them during gym class. Some of those kids had grown out of asthma, but others still have the condition. In health care we always hear about the serious illnesses such as cancer, stroke, and heart attacks, we tend to forget about asthma and the amount of deaths that are caused by an asthma attack. Around 1,000 asthma patients die each day from an attack. Globally, it affects 339 million people world wide, to break it down further 7.7 percent of adults have it and 8.2 percent of children have it. One of the reasons for the deaths that occur is because patients are not taking in the proper amount of medication. This is where the smart inhaler comes in. The smart inhaler uses Bluetooth in order to notify the patient of when to take their medication. It also "collects data and gathers information to help guide care." This device is still new in the health care system and right now the device gives actuation of when a patient has taken their inhaler. It records a time and date stamp.

Other companies that create these inhalers are trying to find new ways to improve the device. Some companies are actually creating simple add-ons to the devices. A company called Propeller health has already tried some clinical trials for this device. "A randomized controlled trial of 495 patients showed that people using Propeller’s add-on smart inhaler and smart phone apps over 12 months used less reliever medication, had more reliever-free days and had improved asthma control[4]. Meanwhile, a randomised control trial of 220 school-aged children showed that Adherium’s smart inhaler improved adherence to preventer medication over a 6-month period." So far the trials have been a success. Those statistics are very good for this device.

However, after using these smart inhalers, some people think that they do not need to see their doctor as often because the machine is doing it for them. Yet, it is still vital to see your doctor to see if there have been any improvements over time. Machines are not to replace your doctor. Some of the devices can actually detect the technique that is used to inhale the medication. However, those are mostly add-ons. Poor inhaling technique can also affect the way that asthma affects the patients. More and more scientist are looking into this device and doing more research on how to improve the inhaler.

A lot of asthma patients have triggers such as anxiety, dust mites, exercise, cold air, molds, pollen, chemical fumes such as perfume or smoke can trigger an asthma attack. The smart inhaler at some point in the future be able to detect why you had to inhale your medication at the time. The goal is to be able to give feedback to the patient so they can understand their trigger better and avoid them in the future. Of course, some are unavoidable such as smoke and perfume, there are many professionals that use perfumes and scents. Smokers are always outside of almost every office building, luckily vapes are becoming more and more common, so it lessens the trigger for someone who has asthma.

This device is innovative and it will help shape and form the future for those with asthma. Technology is really a great thing to be looking at in healthcare, we have power to change patients lives forever.