http://youtu.be/M-7qB-DXhyI?t=32m9s
An estimated 6.8 million children have asthma, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control. Entrepreneurs such as Propellar Health have sought to develop digital health solutions to get a better handle on the condition to help parents avoid unnecessary hospital visits. Owlpal sees the room in the market for a digital health app for parents that monitors children with asthma.
Update: The Chairman and CSO of the 7-month-old company is Dr. Dave Albert, the founder and chief medical officer for AliveCor. The co-founders of Owlpal are MacKenzie Ward and Jordy Albert, who work as associates at the Oklahoma Life Science Fund — one of AliveCor’s backers. That’s helped Owlpal attract some big-gun advisers. Jack Young is the head of the Qualcomm Life Fund at Qualcomm Ventures, another AliveCor investor.
Other advisers include Anand Patel, head of Precision Medicine at Pfizer, and Michael Zagorski who will draw from his background at Philips Respironics Home Health Care Systems, Sway Medical and Impact Applications to provide regulatory guidance.
Owlpal’s app is designed to help parents track their child for signs of respiratory distress and collect data on attacks, particularly at night which is when they frequently occur.
“There’s no way to get any data on children’s asthma in the overnight hours,” said Ward. Since the company’s device is intended to continuously track children, it raises the possibility that the data it amasses could provide new insights on the condition and help reduce attacks.
Owlpal is planning to pursue 510(k) clearance from the FDA, according to Ward, as it wants the app to inform medical decisions.
