You may have seen on either the Asthma UK British Lung Foundation website or LinkedIn that there has been the launch of a multi million pound fund available to support the development of asthma health technologies.
This fund I believe is so important because asthma lags behind other long term conditions when it comes to technology wether it is a wearable, an app, management tool or diagnostic tool. There are so many grey areas in asthma and so many phenotypes that it means there needs to be a big injection of money to develop a tool that will help the broad spectrum of all those with asthma.
I was very fortunate to be asked to record a video which was shown at the prelaunch event sharing my story with asthma and also where I think there is a huge unmet need in asthma care.
This video can be seen here
Now that the fund is live I would really encourage anyone with an interest in asthma and technology to find out more about the fund.
Why?
The brutal truth is it can be life changing for people with asthma. Asthma has destroyed my life and despite my best efforts it dictates much of what I do. As I have had to stop working I am able to share my story about how severe asthma can be and how it can impact all aspects of your life.
Many ask me how better asthma health technology would change my life?
Just now I use a number of different technologies to personally monitor my asthma, as well as the benefit of devices at the hospital as well but because everything is so disjointed and requires the use of multiple different programs. Often we are told that with asthma patterns develop but using so many different technologies to get all the information I need I cant see patterns emerging because all the information in is in different places. While I do not think that having one technology will suddenly make my asthma stable I do think it will give me better insight into what is going on and looking at all aspects of my asthma collating all the information together.
With this fund I can see there being 2 different approaches. One approach will be taken to help the professionals diagnose and perhaps identify at risk groups or management tools and the other approach would be the development of a tool, app or wearable for those who actually have asthma to help them better understand and manage their condition.
It is such an exciting fund and I cant wait to see what results from this fund.
ANONYMOUS-ASTHMA 