DailyBreath SHOW is the 1st Asthma App to Track Wildfire Smoke!

Are there wildfire smoke trackers out there?  Yes, often aligned with air quality apps. But, do they target those with asthma and educate the vulnerable about the dynamic nature of wildfire smoke, thus help to them to prevent health impacts. The DailyBreath Smoke Heatmap Overlay for Wildfires (SHOW) aims to inform vulnerable populations of the dynamic nature of wildfire smoke and educate them on the weather elements that impact the dispersion path of wildfire smoke at the surface and in the atmosphere. 

If it’s wildfire smoke, why not display wildfire smoke, both at the surface and atmospheric smoke that can often be carried by the jet stream, winds, and weather fronts thousands of miles.  Besides seeing the dispersion path, viewers can recognize the gradient of the wildfire smoke, and understand its correlation to the well-known risk levels of the air quality index.

 As the 1st asthma app to track wildfire smoke, we know it’s not perfect. The feature is currently optimized for Android, with an optimized update for IOS coming soon. The display helps the vulnerable to understand the risk of wildfire smoke impacting them ‘downwind’ from wildfires, but SHOW uniquely benefits from a core feature of DailyBreath, tracking symptoms in relation to exposures to wildfire surface smoke, or wildfire atmospheric smoke.  

 As we build this RWE data, it serves two purposes.  Because we are able to identify a symptom recorded within one of these smoke plumes, we will be able to develop a unique one-of-a-kind personalized wildfire smoke risk index based on your individual sensitivity.  We’ll also be aggregating data in order to research under what wildfire smoke conditions, people experience actual symptoms.  Perhaps more people with asthma are having actual symptoms in what has historically been characterized as moderate air quality, not the level commonly know as unhealthy for sensitive people. 

 We already have enhanced functionality for this groundbreaking feature envisioned on our roadmap, but we welcome feedback and suggestions from the DailyBreath members (registered users). In the meantime, please consider downloading DailyBreath, registering to benefit from the development of your personalized risk index, and purchase DailyBreath SHOW, to learn your sensitivity to wildfire smoke.  Start avoiding potentially preventable attacks today!

DailyBreath recognized as a NOAA Weather-Ready Nation (WRN) Ambassador

DailyBreath, LLC is pleased it has been recognized as a Weather-Ready Nation Ambassador by NOAA.  DailyBreath is now formally recognized as a NOAA partner improving the nation’s readiness against extreme weather, water, and climate events.  “We are committed to working with NOAA and other WRN Ambassadors to strengthen resilience against extreme weather and the resultant impacts on communities, vulnerable populations, and the general public in the US and around the world,” said Eric Klos, CEO of DailyBreath.

DailyBreath is partnered with fellow WRN Ambassador, Monarch Weather Consulting, to bring innovative solutions to market that support resiliency for communities and help individuals avoid the negative health outcomes that can result from extreme weather events.  They collaborated in the creation of SHOW, a Smoke Heatmap Overlay for Wildfires, for the DailyBreath mobile app, and available as an API, delivering dynamic wildfire smoke information to support individuals, organizations, businesses, and communities in their efforts in resiliency and adaptation. DailyBreath is building a technological infrastructure to support the provision of weather and environmental insights for better health outcomes daily, and when extreme weather, weather, and climate events arise.  

For example, wildfires threaten life and property locally in the immediate near-term, but its resultant wildfire smoke, threatens people ‘downwind’ hundreds of miles for a longer period with negative health consequences. Being ready and responsive to extreme weather events is critical, but also being prepared for the resultant hazards, like wildfire smoke, is imperative within communities and for individuals who bear the brunt of increased negative health outcomes following extreme weather events.

Eric further stated, “The challenge of our time when it comes to weather and environmental risk in a changing climate is to move beyond just the sharing of data and information, to a sufficient translation of population-level and personalized insights to drive resiliency at the community level and adaptation at a personal level to ensure less negative health outcomes.” “At the end of the day, it’s about ensuring that even one life breathes easier,” Eric concluded.

About DailyBreath

DailyBreath is a cloud based SAAS company delivering personalized environmental insights for better breathing outcomes. DailyBreath is a mobile app that helps those with respiratory conditions to pinpoint THEIR triggers. DailyBreath is unique in that we are trying to diagnose the environment around YOU that impacts YOUR breathing. Our mission is to help everyone breathe easier by pinpointing triggers one symptom at a time. Our vision is a world where uncertainty, fear, and suffering associated with daily breathing is lessened for those with allergy, asthma, and COPD.

About Weather-Ready Nation Ambassadors™

The Weather-Ready Nation Ambassador™ initiative is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) effort to formally recognize NOAA partners who are improving the nation’s readiness, responsiveness, and overall resilience against extreme weather, water, and climate events. As a WRN Ambassador, partners commit to working with NOAA and other Ambassadors to strengthen national resilience against extreme weather. In effect, the WRN Ambassador initiative helps unify the efforts across government, non-profits, academia, and private industry toward making the nation more ready, responsive, and resilient against extreme environmental hazards.

Tracking Wildfire Smoke in an Asthma App - A First!

When I decided that I wanted to add a feature to DailyBreath focused on the resultant smoke associated with wildfires, I recognized that although DailyBreath tracked the weather and environmental conditions every day, there were extreme weather events that incidentally increased the risk for vulnerable populations of specific exposures.  I felt that there was an impact of surface-level smoke, but also an impact of atmospheric smoke that would inform these populations of the risk they might encounter as result of an incidental extreme weather event.  Although a higher air quality index (AQI) is often represented by the presence of surface smoke, I felt that those who are vulnerable needed to understand the dynamic nature of wildfire smoke and perceive the invisible threat that atmospheric smoke posed to vulnerable populations downstream, or, if you will, ‘downwind’. 

When I sought my collaborative partner, Monarch Weather, to execute my vision for SHOW, a Smoke Heatmap Overlay for Wildfires, it was to help me integrate a wildfire smoke weather/environmental data mapping API into DailyBreath as an in-app purchase feature.  The experts at Monarch Weather understood the value that SHOW will bring not only to those with respiratory conditions, but anyone ‘downwind’ of wildfire smoke.  They have applied their extensive weather expertise in developing map views of current wildfire smoke and forecasted wildfire smoke that accommodates the dynamic weather impacts that occur at the wildfire location as well as ‘downwind’.

Our display of not only current surface and atmospheric smoke, but a time-series 5-hour forecast is the type of dynamic information that DailyBreath users need to be location-aware of exposure risk.  With a familiar weather overlay that shows wildfire smoke like how you would view radar for rain, DailyBreath is the first asthma app, or any health-specific app, for that matter, to track wildfire smoke.  Implementing this unique API into an asthma app first is not without its challenges, but we are confident that we’ll be able to optimize its performance, expand the visual display for the entire world not just the continental US, offer additional functionality, and respond to user feedback to make this feature usable and valuable for all populations that are impacted by wildfire smoke, not just those at-risk populations, like those with asthma.

One might wonder why SHOW displays smoke in a black to grey to white gradient linked to commonly known levels associated with AQI. The gradient as reflected in the 5-hour forecast shows DailyBreath subscribers hundreds of miles ‘downwind’ how the jet stream, winds, and weather fronts carry wildfire smoke at varying unhealthy levels to their location, impacting them directly, making this invisible threat, better understood.  One can always view the air quality index (AQI) associated with wildfire smoke by clicking anywhere within the parameters of the smoke visually displayed on the DailyBreath Map, then clicking on the DailyBreath Risk Index on upper right of the map to view the DailyBreath Forecast and the relevant AQI for that location along with ozone and PM 2.5 data.

Download DailyBreath and Register to become part of a growing community for whom tracking environmental insights about triggers, including wildfire smoke, is becoming imperative in our changing climate.  By registering you will benefit from symptom tracking that will reveal environmental insights that uniquely personalizes a risk index that defines your DailyBreath Forecast. This feature is extended in DailyBreath SHOW, as you will be able to uniquely identify flare-ups recorded within the dispersion path of wildfire surface or atmospheric smoke. As we gather this real-world evidence, we will be able to correlate wildfire smoke with increased asthma attacks while also determining a person’s individual sensitivity to that type of pollution.  With DailyBreath SHOW, you will be able to gather environmental insights about your symptoms experience when wildfire smoke is present, developing you own personalized DailyBreath Wildfire Smoke (WS) Risk Index. 

Download DailyBreath today, register, and make the in-app purchase of DailyBreath SHOW (.99 yearly subscription) to access this groundbreaking feature for tracking wildfire smoke to determine your vulnerability. Available in the App Store or get it on Google Play.

DailyBreath to Track Personalized Exposure Health

DailyBreath requires user registration because we’re helping you to monitor your personal asthma journey as you interact with your outdoor environment. By registering, we’re able to store the weather and environmental data associated along with the time and location for a symptom that you have recorded. As you record these symptoms, you’re building a personalized view of where your last 5 flare-ups occurred.

A unique and compelling feature in DailyBreath Plus, our paid Premium version, is a Last 5 flare-ups table that associates your last 5 flare-ups on your Last 5 Flare-Ups Map with the specific weather and environmental conditions you experienced at the time of the recorded symptom. By viewing the table you begin to understand the trends associated with your personal experience of symptoms.

Understanding how YOU experience the weather and environment in your location on a daily basis is the primary goal of DailyBreath, but uniquely, it also tracks the symptoms associated with the incidental impact of allergens, irritants, or the weather from the resultant impacts of extreme weather events. One example is the prevalence of wildfire smoke as a result of wildfires in the West.

By tracking your symptoms, you will determine over time your individual sensitivity to wildfire smoke and how susceptible you may be to experiencing symptoms when various levels of wildfire smoke have impacted your local air quality. Our upcoming wildfire smoke feature, DailyBreath SHOW, a paid enhanced feature in DailyBreath, will help you view threatening wildfire smoke, but also track your symptoms when that wildfire smoke may be a factor.

As you record your symptoms, we’re going to be able to provide you a personalized exposure health profile, that includes risk indices, symptom mapping, and exposure alerts, all based on your individual sensitivity and personal susceptibility. In an increasing unbreathable world for vulnerable populations, measuring your exposures is going to be critical if you want to manage and control whether you experience a potentially preventable respiratory attack. DailyBreath is available for download from the App Store or Get it on Google Play and Register Today to start pinpointing YOUR triggers one symptom at a time!

The Power of Pull - Individual Sensitivity to Exposures and Susceptibility to Experiencing Symptoms.

Our traditional means for communicating information about the weather and environmental exposures has been via a broadcast or push model that informs a broad collection of people of risk in a public health approach. There is always going to be a place for this approach because it informs a community broadly of the collective risk of weather and environmental impacts.

One of the great opportunities that mobile health apps present is the ability to engage with the user with information that is specifically relevant to them, that is personalized. So, we collect information on the weather and environmental exposure through these same means, but we try to associate risk based on the person’s prior experience of symptoms in association with the weather and the environment in a feedback loop of real world evidence. In this manner, the determinant of risk is an individual’s sensitivity to the weather and environmental exposures, based on prior experience, and their subsequent susceptibility to experiencing another symptom.

This is the power of pull. We’re no longer just pushing data and information, but we’re ascertaining knowledge over time about how we are uniquely experiencing symptoms in relation to the environment, and thus are able to translate that knowledge into action. When combined with other data and information inputs, we’re able to connect our individual sensitivity to exposure and susceptibility to experiencing symptoms with the treatment regimens that have been prescribed.

This is the great revolution that digital health avails us in that we are able to recognize personalized exposure health and, ultimately, prescribe precision medicine that reduces the susceptibility of an individual to experience symptoms when confronted by exposures for which they are sensitive. DailyBreath helps you record symptoms, one symptom at a time, in relation to the weather and environment. Each symptom contributes to your own understanding of exposure health, but also contributes to the largest data platform for delivering environmental insights for better health outcomes. Download DailyBreath to share your asthma journey for the benefit of your peers in helping everyone breathe easier one symptom at a time.

Environmental Health Awareness – Woven into Healthcare

HIMSS, a national health it conference, is gathering this week in Las Vegas and attendees may observe outside a haze from wildfire smoke dispersed from wildfires in multiple Western states.  With a plethora of extreme weather events occurring in greater preponderance because of climate change, it’s becoming increasingly clear that we need to translate weather and environmental data into environmental health awareness that alleviates negative health outcomes.  Being environmentally health aware daily is becoming an imperative in our changing climate, but also when extreme weather events have downstream (‘downwind’) impacts.  It’s time we integrate environmental health awareness into every fabric of public health and local health care delivery.  

• ·         Imagine if there was an emergency event like wildfires that might have a smoke impact on your community and your public health department or local health system could reach at risk individuals in your community to inform them of the presence of wildfire smoke at unhealthy levels.

• ·         Imagine if our electronic health records had weather and environmental data integrated into the patient health record so that when a patient presented in the ER or for an inpatient hospital stay, the weather and environmental variables currently, and retrospectively for the past day, past three days, or the past week, were represented in the patient record.  Perhaps then clinicians would be able to correlate the impact of environmental exposures and the patient’s condition.

• ·         Imagine if there was an interface that could be integrated with digital health solutions that alerted a patient of a weather and environmental variable threshold that presented a higher level of risk for the patient based on their condition and individual sensitivity to a specific exposure. (DailyBreath vison)

In a changing climate where these environmental factors are going to have an increasing impact on our health and wellness, this is the type of integration that is needed for our health care system broadly to be responsive to these increasingly prevalent health threats.  

Download DailyBreath Today!

Allergic Asthma Upstream – Daily Nasal Rinsing As A Preventative Action Step

A strange title for sure but inspired by my read of Dan Heath’s Upstream: The Quest to Solve Problems Before They Happen.  If we are going to reduce asthma deaths, hospitalizations, ER visits, and asthma attacks (symptoms, flare-ups, exacerbations, respiratory distress), we must work backwards from the asthma attacks severe enough to require breathing relief.  We must seize the opportunities for preventative action upstream of symptoms that ultimately require respiratory relief, whether a rescue inhaler, or worse, emergency assistance, an ER visit, an in-patient hospital stay, or even threatening life.

Since 70% of those with asthma have allergic asthma, let us target allergen reduction and avoidance to reduce or avoid symptoms that may lead to respiratory distress. With allergic asthma, it is very important to understand symptom threshold. Everyone has their own unique sensitivity to allergy and asthma triggers and not all of them are obvious, many are often subtle.  Your symptom threshold is personal, it is the point at which YOU start experiencing allergy symptoms.  So, an immediate goal is to reduce YOUR symptom threshold.

Upstream activities that support lessening your personal capacity to reach the symptom threshold is a good step in allergy management and control. One upstream step that does not get a lot of attention but makes a lot of sense is daily nasal rinsing.  Every day your nose encounters a variety of particles in the form of pollen, dust, and other allergens and irritants, while indoors or outdoors. YOUR nose is like an AC filter for your body.  Allergy management starts with cleaning out that AC filter to improve overall sinus health. It can remove allergens, thus relieving allergy symptoms. Rinsing your naval passage ensures that you are free of any blockage that may occur when you encounter new allergens and irritants. 

DailyBreath has entered into a strategic partnership with Neosinus Health to cross-market their solution offerings, the DailyBreath app, and the Neosinus Rinse Kit, respectively. The Neosinus Rinse Kit., with its revolutionary design, creates a better rinse experience. This better rinse experience can ensure you are free of any allergen particles in your nose when you encounter new allergens and irritants. It may help you stay below the symptom threshold - the point where you start experiencing allergy symptoms. With increases in pollen and the allergenicity of pollen, nasal rinsing with the Neosinus Rinse Kit as part of your daily routine could be one upstream step in helping you to avoid potentially preventable asthma attacks. Consider purchasing a Neosinus Rinse Kit today.

School-based Asthma Support - Back to Normal Presents Continued Challenges for Students With Asthma

June 22, 2021 – This week the National Association of School Nurses is convening its Annual Conference virtually.  It appears as if school nurses will return to an environment in the fall where COVID is less of a concern and yet, normal challenges may return with a vengeance. 

As students return to school in the fall, those with allergies and asthma have been insulated from allergen and irritant (pollution) impacts because many have been wearing masks during the COVID pandemic.  Unfortunately, the fall, and, specifically, the early months of the new school year, are fraught with risk because of ragweed allergies and because of recently highlighted indoor air quality issues. 

Help is on its ways with substantial funding in the pipeline under the Biden Administration to support increases in school nurse coverage and the School Based Allergies and Asthma Management Program Act became law in early January of 2021.  The purpose of the law is to enhance the safety of students with allergies and asthma in the school setting.  This legislation was based on the School-based Asthma, Allergy, & Anaphylaxis Management Program or SAMPRO™.  The use of DailyBreath by school nurses, administrators, teachers, students, parents, and clinicians allows the integrated care coordination sought by the law for improving health and school-related outcomes for children with asthma. 

One of the insights I was provided by a school nurse was school nurses, teachers, administrators, parents, and even students often were not aware of the weather and environmental conditions that could be impactful to students with asthma in their care.  Because of this insight, I was deliberate in translating the Air Quality Index into a corresponding Air Quality Flag when displaying the DailyBreath Forecast. 

By providing this detail in the DailyBreath Forecast, DailyBreath supports SAMPRO™ Component 4, Environmental Asthma Plan, by providing daily monitoring of outdoor air quality conditions by zip code for schools.  DailyBreath includes push notifications at key times of the day: before school or work, at lunchtime, after school, and in the evening. This helps caregivers to keep checking on student risk and the outdoor air quality at various times of the day. 

Another unique feature of DailyBreath is its Community View of Recorded Flare-Ups.  With this feature, you will be able to note whether your students are having symptoms around your school, perhaps while in proximity to buses, in the car pick-up line, or during recess or after school activities. DailyBreath supports SAMPRO™ Component 1, Establishing a Circle of Support, by offering each member their own personal caregiver network via the DailyBreath Friends feature.  This functions as a communications network centered on the student, consisting of school nurses, teachers, clinicians, families, friends, and more. With this feature, a student may share a message with his network that he feels symptoms coming on at recess or after school.  DailyBreath supports SAMPRO™ Component 3, Education for School Personnel and Students with short educational videos on asthma self-care, symptoms, triggers, and asthma management.

DailyBreath is seeking to build an asthma app that helps all stakeholders, especially those who are responsible for the approximately 5 million school-aged children with asthma, to achieve improved asthma outcomes by delivering environmental insights.  We encourage school nurses to check out DailyBreath by downloading it from the App Store or get it on Google Play.

On Summer Vacation, but Still Exercise Caution with Asthma!

June 21, 2021 – The summer solstice occurred last night at 11:32am EDT, so yesterday was the longest day, having the longest period of sunlight hours.  However, we are already well into the summer season and millions of Americans, especially given the constraints on travel during COVID restrictions, are on the move to vacation destinations, weekend sports tournaments, amusement parks, our national parks, and just generally spending much more time enjoying the outdoors. 

A 2018 report from the Journal of Travel Medicine indicated that ‘ambient air quality may affect both the acute and chronic state of health of travelers.   Pollution may be worse near your vacation destination or perhaps trees or grasses that are present in that location are different than those at home and a pollen allergy surfaces one you experience a new exposure. 

If you have allergies and/or asthma, before you travel, download DailyBreath (iOS or Android), put in the zip code for your destination, and note the weather conditions, the pollution, and the pollen count and predominant pollen type for your destination.  We also crowdsource allergy and asthma symptoms, so check DailyBreath at your destination, to see where patients like you experienced symptoms.  

As you travel, many of you will be staying in hotel rooms and your indoor air quality may impact your allergies, respiratory conditions, and your sleep.  Consider searching for a Pure Room by Pure Wellness which ensures purified air, a hypoallergenic environment, and allergy-friendly bedding for more than a half dozen major hotel brands. Consider bringing along a portable air purifier that you can run while you are away from the room and at night to clean the air. 

It's very easy while on vacation to ignore early symptoms of breathing difficulty, but it’s even more critical that you recognize these symptoms quickly.  The sooner you recognize them, the quicker you will seek near-term treatment.  While on vacation, multiple or sequential exposures may have a cumulative effect that taxes your breathing and creates a rapid onset of an asthma exacerbation that requires immediate attention.  It’s important that you remember to take your controller medication every day, no vacation from that, and don’t’ forget your relief inhaler when travelling.

We all want to have care-free vacations, but an ounce of prevention that includes being weather informed, location aware, and health prepared, can help you avoid potentially preventable asthma attacks while venturing to unfamiliar destinations.  Have a great summer!

Strengthening Social Connectedness in Sharing Your Asthma Journey

One unique aspect of DailyBreath is the crowdsourcing of flare-ups occurring within a community.  At DailyBreath we call this crowdsensing, its a way of detecting within a community how and where vulnerable populations are being impacted by the weather and environmental conditions they are encountering.  So, we want our members to share their symptoms, one symptom at a time, for their own benefit, to inform their personalized DailyBreath Forecast, and to show them where there last 5 flare-ups occurred, but also contribute to this crowdsensing which is way of strengthening social connectedness amidst those who are sharing their asthma journey.

 The social connectedness is further supported within DailyBreath by the Friends and Discussion Board features.  Our Friends module functions, in a way, as your own personal DailyBreath Caregiver Network.  You can add friends and communicate with them.  You can even create groups for a group chat notification.  Perhaps, you would include a family member, the school nurse, a fellow friend with asthma, a teacher, and even, your allergy and asthma specialist, or primary care physician. 

Imagine you are having difficulty after school in a sports practice activity and you forgot your inhaler today.  A quick group chat message could notify the group of your predicament and get follow-on support to help you prevent asthma symptoms.

The Discussion Board feature allows you to post messages to the community, ask questions, get answers, share trigger information, learn from others, and more. All of these features are aimed at permitting an app that has global reach to retain an emphasis on acting locally and connecting those most vulnerable to outdoor environmental conditions to help them all avoid potentially preventable asthma attacks.  Perhaps, by sharing the journey together and trying to help everyone breathe easier, we can realize our mission in ensuring that even one life breathes easier.

Download DailyBreath - Allergy & Asthma on the App Store or Get it on Google Play.