Aer is an asthma management system that facilitates and encourages people to be more compliant with their medication in a convenient, discreet and aesthetically pleasing way. Resulting in healthier individuals due to better management and understanding of their condition - leading to a huge reduction in asthma related costs for society.

The product features; an environmental sensing base, a blue reliever inhaler, a brown preventer inhaler and an extra small emergency inhaler.

The inhaler design is sleeker and more aesthetically pleasing and the inhalers all contain Bluetooth connectivity to an app which monitors use. The inhalers mimic the existing learned use from current inhalers applying the same affordances, reducing the risk of user error.

Alongside, a much smaller emergency inhaler that can fit on a user's key ring ensuring they always carry around their medication with fewer stigmas attached than a conventional inhaler. The emergency inhaler would have 20 doses of reliever medication to be used in an emergency.

The base senses the air quality, humidity and level of particulates in the environment it is in whilst also displaying the time and housing the inhalers. The output of these sensors is displayed on a scale using an LED array of lights.

The Bluetooth connectivity allows tracking of where, when and how well it has been used while also using existing medication containers. The app looks to inform the user how to use the product, track their inhaler usage with the connectivity to the inhaler, assess and feedback environmental factors, reminders for the user and provide contact details in the case of an emergency.

The system is environmentally better due to having longer lasting re-usable inhaler bodies and replaceable canisters.

Overall the products aims to achieve the goal of helping people manage their Asthma better, in a convenient, discreet and aesthetic way leading to healthier individuals due to better management and understanding of their condition. Which in turn would lead to a huge reduction in asthma related costs for society due to fewer hospital visits, medical professional time and missed work days.

Unique selling points

· All in one system

· Environment sensor – tailored for asthmatics

· Information from the sensors conveyed simply by the LED's on base and in more detail using the app

· Extra Small emergency Inhaler, discrete and portable

· Base ensures that people keep inhalers out, to encourage routine

· Does not look like an Inhaler, but quickly transforms into the recognisable form

· Re-fillable inhalers – less waste

· Inhalers collect data to send to app, about time, location and inhalations

· App combines system, holds information, tracking, environment and profile

Problem

Asthma is a chronic lung disease that inflames and narrows the airways, causing periods of wheezing, chest tightness, shortness of breath and coughing.

300 million people in the world suffer from Asthma. Of this 250,000 people die from the condition each year and it is estimated that 90% of these deaths are avoidable. (Bousquet et al, 2007)

As many as 70% of people do not listen to the full instructions of their doctor (Bateman et al, 2008) (Rand and Wise, 1994) and therefore are not adherent to their condition, and as many as 1/3 of people are not using their inhaler correctly and therefore not receiving the correct dose.

It's also estimated that as much as ¾ of the total costs of asthma are due to poor control (Thoonen, 2003.) For example in Europe, asthma related costs equal 19.3 billion euro's per year – when broken down, the mean cost for a controlled adherent asthmatic is 509 euro's per year while the mean uncontrolled asthmatic costs equal 2,281 euro's per year. (Accordini et al, 2013)

Researchers think the yearly cost of asthma in the United States is around $56 billion. Hospital stays are the largest part of that cost - improving adherence could save $19 billion a year in healthcare costs alone (Barnett and Nurmagambetov, 2011.)

Brief – The Proposition

Design an Asthma management system to facilitate and encourage users to be more compliant with their medication.

Facilitate the user through easier and more informed use of their medication, greater convenience through portability, gentle reminders and integrating the system into their lifestyle routine. The system should encourage use through education about their condition, connectivity and the desirability of the system.

Which would result in; healthier individuals due to better management and understanding of their condition leading to a huge reduction in asthma related costs for society.

Solution

Aer is an Asthma management system that consists of two inhalers, an environment sensing base, an emergency inhaler and a companion app for the system.

Overall the products aims to achieve the goal of helping people manage their Asthma better, in a convenient, discreet and aesthetic way leading to healthier individuals due to better management and understanding of their condition. Which in turn would lead to a huge reduction in asthma related costs for society due to fewer hospital visits, medical professional time and missed work days.

What does it do?

The base senses the air quality, humidity and level of particulates in the environment it is in, refreshing the air that enters through the sensors using the centrifugal fan whilst also displaying the time and housing the inhalers. The output of these sensors is displayed on a scale using an LED array of lights.

Due to the functionality of the base unit, it should encourage people keeping the base out, which in turn mean the inhalers will be visible – ideally ensuring routine use of their medication as prescribed from seeing and interacting with the unit every day.

The inhalers look to provide a novel mechanism to make them more discreet and easier to carry than existing "L" shaped inhalers. The Bluetooth connectivity allows tracking of where, when and how well it has been used while also using existing medication containers. The inhalers follow a similar use process to existing inhalers, with one added initial twist.

The emergency inhaler is an extremely small, discreet and portable Inhaler that would have 20 doses of reliever medication to be used in an emergency. The inhaler is inexcusably portable and should always be with the user – in the case of emergency.

The app covered more details about the condition, the device, graphs and data about the user's health sent from the Bluetooth inhalers, environment related reports, a variety of reminders and an emergency page.

How does it work?

The base has a main circuit board, which contains an air quality sensor, humidity sensor, and particle sensor among other micro controllers, chips and miscellaneous electronic components to facilitate the functions of connectivity, displaying the time, power etc. The air inside the base is refreshed regularly due to the fan inside the product, regularly bringing new air from outside into the base unit to test. The results are then converted into a value, by the code and then in turn turned into an output of 1-5 sets of LED's for each sensor. That value is then conveyed to the user, where they can quickly interpret how good or bad their environment is for them. Further details are sent to the phone through Bluetooth in the form of more accurate numbers, and solutions to improve the environment.

The inhalers use the exact same existing canisters, however the inhalers also contain electronics to record, when and where the inhalers were used - to send to the app using bluetooth to improve management and tracking. The inhaler also has a microphone to sense how well the patient has inhaled their medication, to ensure they're getting a proper dose every time with the data fed back to the phone again, providing tips and suggestions.

The inhaler looks to balance being unrecognisable as an inhaler when not in use, but with a quick twist, the form of a conventional inhaler becomes more apparent and instantly recognisable to use – balancing both the desires of the user and ensuring they understand how to use the device.

The emergency inhalers contains a small version of the canister, and functions with a simple press at the back of the inhaler to release the medication – and can also send data just like the other inhalers to the app

Unique selling points

· All in one system

· Environment sensor – tailored for asthmatics

· Information from the sensors conveyed simply by the LED's on base and in more detail using the app

· Extra Small emergency Inhaler, discrete and portable

· Base ensures that people keep inhalers out, to encourage routine

· Does not look like an Inhaler, but quickly transforms into the recognisable form

· Re-fillable inhalers – less waste

· Inhalers collect data to send to app, about time, location and inhalations

· App combines system, holds information, tracking, environment and profile

Inspiration

I'm an Asthmatic who was pretty poor with using my medication as I should have been, and also felt particularly stigmatized not of the condition but the existing inhalers – particularly as a teenager.