The U.S. Food and Drug Administration-cleared Asthmapolis device is small and unflashy, but that’s part of what’s making it so valuable across the spectrum of patients, physicians, payers and public health circles.
It’s a sensor that clips on to the top of an inhaler and communicates wirelessly with an accompanying mobile app, which tracks when and where that inhaler is used by a person with asthma and COPD. And the Madison, Wisconsin-based company that makes it has plans to keep building onto what it can do now that the company has closed a $5 million series A from the Social+Capital Partnership, the venture firm started by ex-Facebook exec Chamath Palihapitiya.
The device/app combo has already found traction among various groups. Patients use it to track triggers and symptoms over time, set up alerts and reminders, and share that information with their families or physicians. Payers like the WellPoint subsidiary Amerigroup cover use of the device for its members with asthma, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates costs the U.S. healthcare system an average of $3,300 per person annually.
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It’s also being used at the public health level by city leaders in Louisville, Kentucky, and by Dignity Health in Sacramento, California, to better understand when and where people with asthma develop symptoms.
A company representative could not be reached by phone today, but co-founder and CEO David Van Sickle told MobiHealthNews that the company plans to develop new sensors to work with the numerous inhaled medications being prescribed today and gain regulatory clearance in other countries like Canada and the UK.
The market for asthma management is crowded, but this startup seems to have a leg up with the sensor. Numerous asthma apps help patients track their symptoms and medication use — AsthmaMD, AsthmaSense, Asthma Buddy, to name a few. AT&T has also developed a sensor device to measure pollutants in the air that could trigger an asthma attack.
Asthmapolis was founded in 2010 and won FDA clearance in the summer of 2012.
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[Photo from Asthmapolis]
