As we aim in 2020 to bring clarity to allergy and asthma triggers, let me start at the beginning. The initial inspiration for DailyBreath came when my sister, Wendy, a medical social worker, who suffers from rheumatoid arthritis, came downstairs one morning when she was living with my family, suffering from a flare-up of her RA. She rather casually said to me, “Eric, wouldn’t it be cool if there was an app that could tell me when my RA is going to flare-up based on the changing weather conditions.”

A little light bulb went off that environmental factors ARE a determinant of health. So, I started researching on how environmental factors were considered by the medical community for patients with specific health conditions. This research showed that environmental factors, for the most part, had been neglected by the medical community:

Perhaps, it was because physicians and patients feel we are at the mercy of the weather and the environment: i.e., “there is nothing we can do to avoid the negative health outcomes associated with those conditions.”
Perhaps, there just was not enough evidence of the correlation of weather and environmental exposure thresholds causing negative health outcomes.
Perhaps, weather forecasting had such a negative reputation, there was mistrust in the accuracy of forecasting potential health impacts.

My research identified a host of patient health conditions impacted by the weather and the environment, but respiratory conditions became my 1st area of focus because those impacts are clear and the impacts to patients, caregivers, and the healthcare system are substantial. As I explored how public health treated weather and environmental risks, I realized that the focus was on the exposures and not necessarily on how the individual patient was experiencing those exposures. I saw an opportunity to focus on delivering personalized health based on how patients experience the weather and environment daily.

My focus on allergies and asthma was not because of a personal connection, but I soon realized the needless suffering that these patients experienced, that was preventable, and inflicted a significant burden on them, their families, and their caregivers. I soon became sympathetic to this vulnerable population that did not have helpful tools to measure the weather and environmental impacts on their condition so that they could more effectively manage their condition and proactively prevent symptoms or worse, breathing difficulty. With DailyBreath, personalized health and precision care based on respiratory patients experience of triggers in their daily life is within reach.