Technology Tackling Asthma

New Zealand has the second highest rate of Asthma in the world, after the United Kingdom. The stats are sobering with as many as 1 in 4 kids reported to suffer some Asthma symptoms, and this is weighted as you might guess on lower income and socio-economic groups.

Asthma has a wide impact on society too, perhaps most obviously on youth. A recent study reported that kids who started school with diagnosed Asthma were more likely to show poorer performance in reading...

"The study found that children who started school with asthma – 18.5 per cent – were significantly more likely to be in the lowest 25 per cent in reading at the end of their first year." [read the rest]

With no cure available for Asthma the first step to approach this problem is with awareness and education. We need to teach our kids how to deal with Asthma and manage their lifestyle to minimise the impact.

To this end there have been some recent technology solutions emerge designed to help with just this. And both of them are homegrown, right here in New Zealand.

The first to emerge was Puff'd, an iPad application designed specifically for kids to teach them about Asthma. It uses an innovative gaming approach to engage kids and convey the key messages.

Developed by software engineering students from Waikato University and in conjunction with Asthma Waikato, the free application is live in the iTunes store and has been downloaded thousands of times. Kids have to help Sailor the puffer fish defend the lungs from Asthma attack by stopping the enemy 'triggers' attacking the lungs. It's a fun and interactive way for kids to discover for themselves what triggers are so they can recognize them in themselves.

Then more recently Asthma New Zealand launched a new smartphone application which adult sufferers can use track their condition, communicate directly with their doctor and also provide aggregate data which may help with wider research...

"The app lets users check their peakflow readings, keep a symptoms diary and send data straight to the doctor." [read more]

Especially useful for people with severe conditions the immediate value is in the way the user can notify their doctor immediately of any changes or issues, as well as tracking environmental conditions and triggers which in aggregate will provide useful information for research purposes.

It's not hard to imagine many different use case scenarios for similar applications for many types of condition, and portends to a new wave of technology criven research that simply wasn't possible on a large scale until the iPhone came along and changed the game for smartphone manufacturers.

With such a high rate of ASthma in this country we have a clear impetus to be leaders in research as well as public education and awareness, so it is exciting to see these kinds of initiatives taking hold.

If you have Asthma, or think you may suffer from Asthma symptoms you will find plenty of information all over the web regarding causes, symptoms and treatment. Ultimately though you must consult your doctor for proper clinical diagnosis and for discussion about appropriate treatments.