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GPS Laden Inhalers to Help Better Understand Attacks

Posted April 10, 2009 9:05 AM

From Newlaunches.com:

Currently doctors find it difficult to figure out the nature of an asthma attack and therefore a comprehensive solution is never achieved. An asthma inhaler laced with a GPS device may sound like an unnecessary luxury but thanks to this device doctors can now relay the detail of an attack as soon as it occurs, also enabling the doctor to understand the reasons that trigger an attack in a patient. It’s not hard to see that in the future an asthma patient could get an early warning when they are passing by a major asthma unfriendly zone.

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Anonymous Poster
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Re: GPS Laden Inhalers to Help Better Understand Attacks

04/10/2009 1:01 PM

I don't see how this "asthma warning system" would be implemented.

First off, don't asthma triggers vary somewhat by person? And won't the concentration of those triggers stand to vary wildly with seasons, wind shifts, weather, etc?

Next, who's actually going to constantly collect all this location data? Who's going to compile and maintain a useful database that takes the current environmental conditions into account? Who's going to provide the service to constantly monitor my current location (and how?) and warn me that I'm entering a "danger zone"?

How will that warning come? Will my inhaler beep? That doesn't tell me much. Are they going to phone me to tell me which direction to flee?

I'm all for, you know, breathing. But this seems like the CDC just wanted to burn some cash. Or perhaps they just want some "free" pollution data for some other purpose and this was the cheapest way to get it.

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