Faculty at Saint Louis University are helping to develop an app to provide asthma sufferers with a dynamic, personalized map showing areas of high asthma risk.
Saint Louis University health information technology expert Mark Gaynor says the first step is to build a geographic database. It will include asthma-related information like emergency room visits, air quality conditions, and even asthma-related Google searches.
“And then the idea is to put all of these things together, along with your particular type of asthma, and try to build an alert system that will look at all these conditions together and try to tell you that in certain areas you’re going to have problems or you’re not going to have problems,” Gaynor said.
Gaynor says the end products will be a web-based program and a smart-phone app with a map showing geographic zones of high risk, based on the user's asthma triggers.
SLU, the St. Louis College of Pharmacy, and Harvard University will collaborate on the project, which is being funded in part by a $93,ooo start-up grant from Google.
St. Louis has been ranked among the 10 worst cities for asthma in the U.S.
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