A Changing Climate

EXPOSURE AWARENESS, SENSITIVITY DETERMINATION, AND ADAPTIVE CAPACITY

When I started DailyBreath, I sought climate science expertise because I perceived that the convergence of weather, pollution, and pollen creates a relative increase in risk for patients with respiratory conditions that is quantifiable and is personal. A literature review of over 700 sources explored studies that had been performed around the weather, pollution, and pollen impacts on negative health outcomes for patients with asthma. This literature review identified the specific thresholds that caused a higher incidence of these negative outcomes and formed the basis for the DailyBreath Risk Index.

The summer before the release of DailyBreath’s MVP (minimally viable product), the 2016 Climate Change and Human Health report was released as part of the National Climate Assessment. It provided a road map for discovery of exposure impacts that are increasing as a result of climate change, the determination of exposure sensitivity at a personal level, and the building up of adaptive capacity to help an individual avoid the potentially preventable negative health outcomes.

DailyBreath embodies this road map for an asthma patient. Too many potentially preventable events, asthma attacks, occur for patients, which has become an accepted norm within the healthcare system. And, yet our capacity to know more about a patient’s triggers, use that data to determine personal sensitivity, and provide recommendations for preventative actions can help this vulnerable population prevent asthma attacks, ER visits, hospital stays, and tragically, deaths, that result from an asthma attack. With DailyBreath, patients can be weather informed, location aware, and health prepared.