Among the plethora of smart medical devices, connected or smart inhalers have emerged as an appealing solution for people with respiratory conditions like asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). Connected inhalers are often accompanied by an app to help patients track their medication usage. These apps can also provide audio visual alerts as reminders to take a dose and personal guidance to improve one’s inhaler technique. This can effectively solve the problem of faulty inhalation techniques which affects most patients.
Connected inhalers will give insight into the causes of one’s symptoms and generate usage reports that can be shared with a patient’s physician. This additional health data can be useful if the physician is adjusting the treatment plan or medication of a patient. Certain AI-enabled inhalers can also identify seasonal triggers like the level of air pollutants and pollen counts and warn patients of possible flare-ups thus forestalling a medical episode.
