The objective of this project was to develop a low-cost, portable spirometer and integrated mobile application that helped asthma patients manage their health.
The project was a joint venture between Tansia Health and Farus LLC. Funding was provided through an SBIR Phase I Initiative for the US Department of Health and Human Services.
My Role
I worked directly with the Tansia CEO – a leading Allergist-Immunologist – to define the Phase 1 design, content and overall application functionality.
My Responsibilities
• User Research
• Application Flowcharts
• Wireframes
• Visual Design
1. The current number of asthmatics in the US is over 25M, and accounts for one-quarter of all emergency room visits per year. In 2007 alone, patient costs soared to over 56B.
2. Effective treatments exist to control asthma, but the disease often goes under-diagnosed and under-treated with patient adherence to medication that's generally poor. Further, there are too few specialists to manage all asthmatics – which would significantly improve outcomes and lower costs.
3. Accurate assessment of asthma requires specific information about symptoms, medication use, and objective lung function measurements (spirometry). Together these components provide the necessary information to evaluate asthma severity and provide good asthma control.
4. Personal spirometers can be costly, putting them out of reach for many asthma patients.
Hardware:
The patented Farus Bluetooth spirometer is both affordable and portable.
Software:
The integrated Tansia Air mobile platform provides patients with essential tools for effective asthma management.
User Features:
• Personalized Asthma Action Plans
• Accurate spirometry results
• Symptom activity, and trigger tracking
• Condition progress reports
• Live GPS weather and air quality info
• Medication reminders
• Upload reports to electronic health records
Clinician Features:
• Modify and confirm patient Action Plans
• Provide early preventative measures
• Alerts for patients who are nearing risk
• Alerts for patient medication refills
Socioeconomic:
The incidence of asthma is higher among low-income populations who are less likely to have access to affordable health care.
Environmental: Being disproportionately ethnic minorities, many asthmatics are more likely to live near industrialized or urban areas where there is higher particulate air pollution and ground level ozone.
Age:
Asthma is more common in children than adults with African-American children having the highest occurrence. About six million children under the age of 18 have asthma – or roughly 1 in 12.
Gender:
Adult women have a higher prevalence of asthma than adult men. Furthermore women with obesity have an even higher prevalence than those in lower weight categories.
Global Trends:
Globally, the rate of asthma has increased as undeveloped communities adopt western lifestyles and become more urbanized.
This is my favorite part of designing an application. It's where I get to integrate my client's objectives and the user's needs into a cohesive unit for the first time. I tend to put a little more detail in my flowcharts than normal, but this helps me catch design issues more quickly. Further, it allows my developers to spot any potential issues early, and get a leg up on coding.
