Developing a mobile app and claiming it will save lives runs the risk of hyperbole, so I will not make that claim. DailyBreath is a tool to help allergy and asthma sufferers be weather aware and location aware so that they can be health prepared.

For too long, those who are vulnerable to respiratory distress as a result of outdoor conditions, have suffered. Suffering should not be an accepted ‘normal’ for those with allergies and/or asthma. Needless suffering implies that we unduly experience suffering and in the context of allergies and asthma, patients do have an ability to prevent the conditions that create suffering. However, allergy and asthma sufferers endure the weather and environment without being given the tools that would permit them to avoid the conditions that lead to suffering.

With DailyBreath, we will track weather and environmental factors and learn about how they impact each allergy and asthma patient. We’ll also begin to understand where patients are more vulnerable to these factors. We just don’t have enough information to support these patients in mitigating asthma flare-ups. We’re so focused on medications because we’re operating as if we are at the mercy of conditions instead of understanding them and learning how to control and manage our exposures.

DailyBreath is about patient empowerment. The patient will be empowered to limit their suffering, whether it’s in the form of consistent allergy symptoms or in the case of asthma, exacerbations that are extremely burdensome, and often result in emergencies. These emergencies often lead to emergency room visits and, sometimes, in-patient hospital stays. Every day in America there are 30,000 flare-ups that lead to 5,000 ER visits, that lead to 1,000 in-patient hospital stays and 10 souls are lost often from preventable respiratory attacks.

We need to do all that we can to limit suffering. Quoting Emerson, “….that one life has breathed easier.” This is how we’ll define success with DailyBreath.