What Your Smartphone Can Tell You About Your Health
“…doctors overseeing people with asthma have relied on limited, unscientific data – patients’ own recall and reporting of inhaler usage, says David Van Sickle, an asthma epidemiologist in Madison, Wisc. His company, Asthmapolis, aims to change that through sensors that attach to inhalers and record the time and place of usage.”
In Honor of World Asthma Day…Asthmapolis
“Products are often fun or handy, but occasionally a Bluetooth product comes along with the potential to change people’s lives. ” Asthmapolis is discussed in honor of World Asthma Day.
Two healthcare innovators join “Super Mayor” and Zappos CEO on Dreamers & Doers list
“Government Technology issues its Top 25 list every year to recognize the ‘hardest-working and most innovative individuals in the public sector.’…Ted Smith won a spot on the list for bringing a citywide pilot project for Asthmapolis to Louisville”
Mapping your way to better health
“The budding field of Geomedicine seeks to combine mapping and computer software with environmental hazards and health effects. In addition to programs like Cal EnviroScreen, there are devices like the Asthmapolis inhaler, which is equipped with a Bluetooth-like device that tracks where you take a puff, helping identify what places are likely to trigger an attack.”
“After hearing about Asthmapolis online and on twitter, I asked company co-founder and CEO David Van Sickle, PhD a few questions about their innovative technology and the growth of the company. My interest in innovations for asthma stems from a desire to see less morbidity from asthma and an improvement in daily management.”
Social+Capital Partnership puts $5M behind sensor clip and app for asthma inhalers
The Asthmapolis “device/app combo has already found traction among various groups. Patients use it to track triggers and symptoms over time, set up alerts and reminders, and share that information with their families or physicians. Payers like the WellPoint subsidiary Amerigroup cover use of the device for its members with asthma…and [it’s] also being used at the public health level by city leaders in Louisville, Kentucky, and by Dignity Health in Sacramento, California, to better understand when and where people with asthma develop symptoms.”
TripleTree Announces Twelve Finalists for 2013 iAwards
Asthmapolis is announced as one of the 12 finalists for the TripleTree iAwards. “The TripleTree iAwards were created to recognize exceptional companies that are demonstrating insight, innovation, and initiative in healthcare.”
Big Data and Healthcare Collide in Louisville, Ky.
“Louisville decided to challenge that framework by adopting new sensor technology that combines a GPS transponder with a Bluetooth-enabled asthma inhaler. The device, made by Asthmapolis, syncs with patients’ smartphones and makes it possible for patients, their doctors — and, with patient permission, the city — to know when and where episodes of inhaler use occur. This not only represents an innovation in the realm of public health data but also, perhaps more importantly, dramatically improves the quantity and the accuracy of patient diaries, which are the current standard of care.”
“…S+C – the fund started by former Facebook VP Chamath Palihapitiya — seems to be the Valley VC of the moment, enjoying the sort of buzz most recently experienced by the likes of Andreessen-Horowitz and Founders Fund. It has not shied away from healthcare technology and services, investing in Asthmapolis, Syapse, Glooko, and Flatiron Health.”
Hi-tech inhaler helps doctors craft asthma treatments
“A new cutting-edge asthma inhaler is helping doctors create a more accurate treatment plan by pinning down a patient’s location and possible triggers around them. Teresa Garcia reports from Woodland, California.”
Asthmapolis place des capteurs sur les inhalateurs des asthmatiques
“La technologie développée par Asthmapolis a entre autres pour objectifs d’aider les praticiens à mieux soigner leurs patients en effectuant un contrôle continu sur leurs traitements et en récoltant des informations préciseuses sur les conditions environnementales dans lesquelles ils évoluent.”
Health care tech meetup group focuses on innovation
“The Madison area already has health care companies such as Epic; several hospitals; GE Healthcare; data analytics company Forward Health Group; and promising medical device companies such as Asthmapolis…”
GE Foundation Launches Pilot Programs to Address Region-Specific Health Issues
“In Louisville, the [GE]foundation will invest $107,640 over two years in a partnership with Asthmapolis to improve chronic respiratory disease management and reduce costs through personalized, data-driven feedback and education”
“Asthmapolis is in a unique position in healthcare IT,” explains Social+Capital General Partner Ted Maidenberg, “where its technology can easily integrate with existing behaviors (like using your inhaler), while adding a huge amount of data (time, location, activity) that provides a much smarter package compared to your over-the-counter inhaler.”
Asthmapolis inhales $5M to tackle a 50M person, $50B problem
“50 million people live with chronic respiratory disease in the U.S. and it is a $50 billion problem. Asthmapolis has raised $5 million from the Social+Capital Partnership to address both.”
Asthmapolis Raises $5 Million from Social Capital
“Until now we have been really focused on building the product and demonstrating efficacy, which we have done…and now it is time to scale up and meet these populations wherever they are.” Van Sickle said that people with asthma have various levels of technology and health literacy, and Asthmapolis does not exist “to build digital health solutions for the upper crust of the socioeconomic spectrum,” he said, “but for everybody, for the whole population.”
Asthmapolis shows how hardware and data can together solve problems, raises $5M while it’s at it
“If you didn’t think asthma was much of a problem in the US, this figure is going to leave you short of breath: $50 billion… Asthmapolis, has announced that it has raised $5 million in a Series A round from the Social+Capital Partnership.”
Mobile Solution Aimed at Curbing Asthma Among Florida’s Poor
“Asthmapolis and Amerigroup Florida have just announced a mobile health solution to address the problem of asthma.” This program is specifically geared towards “meeting the healthcare needs of Florida’s most financially vulnerable citizens.”
Amerigroup Florida now covers Asthmapolis for asthma management
“A WellPoint health plan in Florida, called Amerigroup Florida, announced that it will offer Asthmapolis’ FDA-cleared mobile health device and service to its members with asthma.”
Mobile World Congress 2013 Wrap-up: Three Major Trends in Bluetooth® Technology
“Breakthrough Awards category winners Swissmed and Asthmapolis, are great examples of companies using Bluetooth Smart technology for medical purposes…”
Information Technology Offers a Bright Spot in Health Care
Asthmapolis is part of the new wave of healthcare information technology. “The health-care system is moving in a direction where consumers are taking more personal responsibility for their health by taking advantage of platforms that ‘quantify’ their lives.”
Passive sensors are next big thing, but questions remain
“Health economist and management consultant Jane Sarasohn-Kahn” predicts that passive sensors will eventually be used heavily in clinical settings. “Ultimately, when it comes to sensor technology, the challenges are significant, but so are the rewards.”
Ted Smith – 2013 GT Top 25 Winner
“Partnering with Wisconsin-based Asthmapolis, Smith leads an effort in Louisville to provide asthma sufferers with sensors that track when and where patients access their medication. The goal? To ease the suffering of patients, reduce costs from emergency treatment by encouraging better control of the disease and gather information to layer atop other data sets to inform remediation options.”
Asthmapolis “allows the generation of a personalized map that identifies the locations where the patients wheezed or had a difficult time breathing, as well as information on the frequency of inhaler use.”
Small Gadgets That Make You Healthier
“The device and data-monitoring system—which are collectively called Asthmapolis and which were approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration last July—constitute just one example of an emerging strategy in a movement so new that no one has yet coined a catchy name for it. That movement holds great promise because it combines traditional medical record keeping and public health surveillance with data mining and mobile phone technologies. Together these tools produce deep, up-to-date reports that can benefit patients and medical researchers, as well as public health and environmental authorities, all at the same time.”
Healthcare Physicians Turn to Technology to Save Lives
“Epidemiologist David Van Sickle… creat[ed] a next generation inhaler complete with a GPS sensor that could outline where a user is located in the world and then immediately send the crucial information to their doctor.”
Healthcare to shift from Rx to choice
Services like Asthmapolis allow “Patient communities and online diagnosis tools [to] empower people by giving them information, so everyone can interact with the healthcare system not as a patient or as a consumer, but simply as a person.”
Healthcare Needs Innovation Now
“With health-related services like Asthmapolis or The Eatery sitting on an iPhone or Android screen beside Twitter, YouTube, or Facebook applications, the boundaries between lifestyle and life-care are blurring, perhaps even fading away.”
New technology helps doctors link a patient’s location to illness and treatment
“The Asthmapolis inhaler is part of a burgeoning field called geomedicine, which uses geographic information system (GIS) technology to correlate environmental conditions with health risks…’It’s these kinds of insights that we think will help us understand the origins of the disease,’ [says David Van Sickle, CEO of Asthmapolis].” La noticia también está en español en GeoActual.
In Louisville, Fresh Look at Health Data Correlations Drives Efforts on Asthma
Asthmapolis is one of the key “silos of data” for the Louisville Asthma Initiative Project promoted by the IBM’s Smarter Cities initiative
Will the Chief Innovation Officer Transform Government?
As Chief Innovation Officer becomes an increasingly popular position, Asthmapolis continues to help the CIO of Louisville bring results to their city’s innovation efforts.
Great New Healthcare Tech on Display at CES 2013
“This year, mobile and cloud-based healthcare technologies were some of the most popular industry segments represented” at CES 2013. David Van Sickle, CEO of Asthmapolis spoke of the “Digital Health Summit harnessing the momentum of this exciting movement.”
Quantified Self Meetup: We’ve been doing it since Ben Franklin (or earlier)
Asthmapolis’s President, Mark Gehring, will be speaking at the Quantified Self movement in Louisville, KY on how Asthmapolis is making a change in the city.
Health Care Devices Use Bluetooth To Link To Smartphones
Asthmapolis can not only guide patients and give physicians a better view of what is going on but it can also help the community by “helping to show asthma sufferers places they should probably avoid.”
Beyond Mobile: Sensors Give Us Superpowers
Asthmapolis is listed in Kathy Sandler’s review of Tapworthy author Josh Clark’s recent IxDA New York City presentation. Josh was one of our advisors in creating the first Asthmapolis sensor.
Projects You’ve Never Heard of that Could Change the World
Asthmapolis is nominated for the Katerva Award which is awarded to “the best idea on the planet. The Katerva Award has been referred to as the Nobel Prize of Sustainability.” Asthmapolis is featured underneath the Human Development category.
CES 2013: Healthcare Professionals Won Over by the Cloud
Asthmapolis’ Co-founder and CEO David Van Sickle talked about Asthmapolis’ inhaler sensor at CES 2013 and how data sent to the cloud can provide individualized as well as broad public feedback.
Diverse, ageing and losing faith: dissecting the British consumer in 2013
The 2013 British Census puts an emphasis on health statistics and how future markets must keep a look out for useful apps such as Asthmapolis.
Healthy Big Data Shows That Prevention Is Better Than The Cure
Asthmapolis uses data to help “asthmatics improve the level of control they have over their condition, by understanding when to take their medication and avoiding anything that can trigger an asthma attack.”
Big Data’s Next Target: Asthma
“Louisville partnered with IBM and Asthmapolis to launch the Louisville Asthma Data Innovation Project. The project is based on information collected from 500 asthmatics in the city who are given an Asthmapolis sensor to use…The data collected from participation in the Asthma Data Innovation Project is to be combined with other data sources to arrive at correlations that point to ‘hot spots’ for the disease.”
2012 Year in Review: Chief Innovation Officers
Ted Smith, the director of innovation for the Louisville Metro Government is focusing on projects like Asthmapolis to help “tackle a prominent health issue in the city.”
“Asthmapolis, a system that allows patients to connect to a mobile app via a sensor-enabled inhaler” is listed under “Sensors, social networks change health behavior—on a large scale ”
PSFK Picks: Top 10 Health Innovations Of The Week
Asthmapolis makes this list with its “innovation [that] aims to provide precise information about where and how an inhaler is needed.”
Self-tracking: six ways to manage your health and wellbeing – in pictures
Asthmapolis makes it into the Guardian’s six gadgets or smartphone applications that aid in self-tracking list.
Asthmapping: Smart Inhalers Track Usage to Save Lives
A great overview of Asthmapolis and its history by Wired.com
Can GPS Tracking Reduce Asthma Attacks?
The Asthmapolis sensor is the latest entry in the growing self-tracking movement
Technology Turns Imagination Into Reality
“Imagine a small Bluetooth Smart sensor device on an inhaler.” No need to imagine it, Asthmapolis has already created it.
15 New Healthcare Companies to Know
Asthmapolis makes it on Becker’s Healthcare list of new healthcare companies to know.
Allergies: Ways to reduce asthma woes investigated
As mild winters and increasing carbon dioxide levels create more pollen, Louisville teams up with Asthmapolis to “better understand what’s causing asthma attacks and to help patients better manage their condition.”
Asthma apps are helping sufferers manage condition
“In the past few years, asthma patients have seen technology make the disease more manageable. Companies now are unveiling devices that track inhaler usage with GPS, measure wheezing, compile data on smartphone-mobile apps and share interactive online content.” Asthmapolis is also “partnering with Synapse Product Development in Seattle to create more asthma-related products.”
Big Data in Healthcare: Hype and Hope
Asthmapolis working towards making Big Data for asthma available to reduce asthma related costs.
Technology and health: Measuring your everyday activities can help improve your quality of life, according to aficionados of “self-tracking.”
Open Government Data: Not Just Good Policy, But Economically Sound
Spark entrepreneurial activity: One of the few bright spots during the recession has been the staggering number of location-based apps and services that have been created, such as FourSquare, or Asthmapolis — which helps asthma sufferers track what locations may trigger an attack. We may forget that it has only been since the year 2000 that entrepreneurs have been able to capitalize on the U.S. government’s GPS signals to create them.
Companies like Massive Health and Asthmapolis are founded on creating innovative ways to collect and interpret large amounts of data. By making data more accessible, they hope to impact individual behavior and public health surveillance.
Know thyself: The Quantified Self devotees who live by numbers
Asthmapolis links sensors attached to the inhalers used by asthma patients when they have attacks to smartphones, which gather data on where and when they are used. Tracking this information over time helps patients identify the triggers that make their conditions worse. Patient tests are due to start next year.
Data-Driven Asthma Management
Asthmapolis to roll out 2012 pilots to track asthma origins, triggers
White House, Open Data Developers Trade Ideas
Selbstvermessung als Trend: Ich bin der perfekte Zahlenmensch
Promoting Wellness vs. Illness: It’s All About We vs. I
High-tech inhaler from Madison company would help doctors track asthma attacks
Où va la “quantification de soi” ?
“Pourtant, ces types de partages permettent aussi de créer des cartographies utiles, comme Asthmapolis (vidéo). Asthmapolis est une cartographie des zones irritantes pour les personnes atteintes d’asthme construit à partir d’inhalateur dotés d’un petit GPS permettant à leurs utilisateurs de cartographier les endroits où ils s’en servent simplement en les utilisant, sans avoir à renseigner une quelconque information supplémentaire.”
“Either way, the upshot would be better lives for patients in the short term and, if all went well, a true understanding of the triggers of this debilitating and occasionally life-threatening condition.”
“And track the Quantified Selfers do, often aided by new products designed for them: Zeo headbands, said to monitor sleep phases; Nike plus, shoes with a distance, speed and time sensor embedded in them; Asthmapolis, which records the location, time and date of each breath so asthmatics can monitor their attacks. Every bit of data is shared in meetings so it can be considered in the aggregate.”
Practical Applications for Government Data, Online
“Another expo winner is Asthmapolis. Asthma patients are given an inhaler that is equipped with a GPS monitor that collects location data whenever they inhale. This information can be used to track the spots where people have asthma symptoms, and to identify people whose asthma is not under control.”
Data for a Better Planet. How should we use data to improve our lives?
“These tools are simultaneously cool and useful. They’re also just the beginning; there are countless ways to use data to improve society that we haven’t yet figured out….The people behind Asthmapolis distribute an attachment to asthma inhalers with built-in GPS, and they are using this technology to help asthma sufferers better understand what sets off their attacks.”
Mobile Health Apps Are on the Rise
“An early signal of what might be possible in this space is the platform Asthmapolis. Asthmapolis is a GPS inhaler-tracker app that enables users to track their own asthma conditions. The technology contributes to the public health understanding of the connections between asthma and place (where environmental triggers may be greater in some locations versus others).”
Four ‘Get-To-Know-Yourself’ Healthy Tools
“Asthmapolis: monitors asthma events with GPS tracker embedded in an inhaler and synchronizes with a mobile diary to help users manage their own asthma with health professionals.”
“[A] lot more could be done to improve asthma surveillance and the clinical day-to-day management of asthma simply by capturing information about where people with asthma use inhalers and when.”
Data information: How visual tools can transform lives
“This data-led, web-inspired movement — branded Health 2.0 or open medicine — is boosting patient-power too.”
Study to Identify Rural Triggers of Asthma Attacks
“To identify triggers that cause asthma attacks, a research study is currently underway that uses GPS enabled inhalers to record when and where medicine was needed. Collecting enough information over a substantial enough amount of time may help people spot which locations and environmental factors trigger an asthmatic reaction.”
App developers take HHS, IOM up on their data-mining offer
“We’re seeing a very exciting explosion in the number of small, personal devices as well as sensor networks and mobile phone apps that are dedicated to structuring, collecting and aggregating quality healthcare data,”
iPhone Apps That Could Save Your Life
“Asthmapolis uses a special GPS-enabled device that attaches to an inhaler and automatically records the time and location when asthma patients use their inhalers. This data is automatically transmitted to the patient’s doctor, while aggregate data is available to asthma researchers and public health agencies.”
“[The] device, the County Health Rankings and the other data-crunching tools offer the promise of better informed decision-making by patients, doctors, public health officials and policy-makers.”
Here come the healthcare apps
“Asthmapolis aggregates the data voluntarily provided by users and gives it to physicians, scientists and health agencies. The goal is to identify environmental exposures that trigger attacks.”
Data-driven: HHS aims for info accessibility
“Former CDC epidemiologist David Van Sickle was another one of seven developers called on to showcase innovative healthcare data-handling tools from the podium during the kickoff session last week.”
From Calories to Sleep Cycles: What the Real-Time Web Means for Your Health
“Beyond constant self-monitoring, the real-time Web is changing the medical and health fields on a larger, macro level as well, with crowdsourced solutions like Asthmapolis.”
Asthmapolis – Asthma inhaler tracking
“Simply brilliant idea which aggregates data from people, epidemiolgists and health researchers to build up a objective data about asthma in an area.”
On the Lookout for New Asthma Tools
“New technology that can track symptoms and medication dosages anytime and anywhere has the potential to usher asthma management into the emerging mobile information society.”
NewsCAP: An asthma inhaler equipped with Global Positioning System (GPS) capability
“An asthma inhaler equipped with Global Positioning System (GPS) capability could allow researchers to track when and where asthma attacks occur-and reveal previously unknown environmental triggers and hot spots.”
GPS mapping for asthma triggers
“’Established risk factors for asthma do not explain its global prevalence patterns and time trends,’says Van Sickle. ‘Studies of epidemic asthma have demonstrated that understanding the locations where asthma exacerbations occur can help identify important new exposures.’”
“How might the technology that keeps you from getting lost in your car lead to better asthma control?”
Researcher plans to use GPS to study asthma triggers
“You wouldn’t expect GPS tech to have an impact on asthma research, but the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s David Van Sickle says it will — he’s planning on tagging sufferers so he can learn when and where they reach for their inhalers.”
Latest Press Releases
May 20, 2013: Asthmapolis CEO to Present at Respiratory Drug Delivery (RDD®) Europe 2013
March 19, 2013: Wyckoff Heights Medical Center Is First New York Hospital to Offer Asthmapolis Mobile Asthma Management Program
March 12, 2013: Asthmapolis Partners with Amerigroup to Enhance Asthma Management Efforts
March 7, 2013: Asthmapolis CEO Talks Sensors and The Future of Healthcare at SXSW
February 28, 2013: Study Published in PLOS ONE Highlights Improved Asthma Control and Fewer Symptoms After Using Asthmapolis System
February 26, 2013: Asthmapolis Wins Bluetooth Breakthrough Product Award
January 7, 2013: Asthmapolis CEO to Speak at CES 2013 Digital Health Summit
July 27, 2012: Asthmapolis Expands Dignity Health Study to Include Mercy Medical Group Patients
July 10, 2012: Asthmapolis Receives FDA Clearance for Asthma Inhaler Sensor Technology and Accompanying Software System
