The Courier-Journal is reporting that Louisville, KY is going high-tech to try to figure out what’s behind the city’s problem with asthma. ‘Smart’ emergency inhalers will help those in Louisville metro area track causes with a data-driven asthma study.
As many as 500 Louisville residents will be equipped with “smart” emergency inhalers that will track the time and location of their asthma attacks.
It’s part of a study scheduled to begin in May that could help city officials understand what’s causing asthma attacks and help patients better manage the illness, which affects more than 100,000 people in the Louisville metro area.
The Louisville mayor’s office will announce the study this morning. It will coincide with a scheduled announcement by IBM that the company has selected Louisville to receive about $400,000 in technical support for the research as part of the company’s “Smarter Cities Challenge.”
IBM’s experts will help Louisville identify and analyze large volumes of data — from air quality to pollen outbreaks to traffic congestion — that can be compared with the information from the participants’ inhalers.
The result should shed new light on the city’s growing asthma problem, said Ted Smith, Louisville’s economic growth and innovation director.
The study uses technology developed by a Wisconsin company called Asthmapolis.
A small sensor is placed atop emergency inhalers that asthma patients use when they are having severe attacks, said David Van Sickle, the company’s co-founder who formerly worked in public health surveillance for the CDC.
When people use the inhaler, the sensor works with the patient’s cellphone to transmit the time of the attack to the company’s computer network. The patient’s cellphone, if it’s equipped with global-positioning software, also will send the location, Van Sickle said.
Working with the CDC, the company has experimented with the technology in two pilot projects of about 40 patients each, he said. One was in Wisconsin and the other in rural areas across several Midwestern states, he said.
Louisville is one of 33 cities chosen worldwide this year by IBM as part of its three-year, 100-city $50 million philanthropic initiative aimed at improving urban life, said Michael Rowinski, an IBM spokesman.
No money comes from IBM, just expertise, but that is more than enough for Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer.
“This project is unique because it brings together innovation, public health and data to help better understand our problem with asthma in Louisville,” Fischer said. “The brain power that IBM will bring to our city is even more valuable than dollars.”