High-Resolution Trajectory Mapping of Post-Discharge Knee Replacement Patients (TRIPP: Trajectories in Predictive Methods and Alerts to Prevent Asthma)
The Opportunity
There are currently 25 million people documented with asthma, including 6.1 million children, many of whom end up in emergency rooms due to asthma exacerbations, despite being preventable if one can avoid triggers. The problem this team worked to solve is how to monitor particulate matter in order to avoid asthma triggers. The group specifically studied was post-discharge knee replacement patients.
Our Approach
Minima is an applied particle technology tool that is lightweight, measures every second, wireless, GPS enabled, wearable, child-proof, and was developed by Wash U engineers. Using Minima, the team sought to determine if particulate matter exposure levels correlated with asthma symptoms, if the particulate size had correlation, and if there was a lag time between exposure to particulate matter and the onset of asthma symptoms.
Patients involved in the study wore the Minima device daily, which recorded particulate exposure every 15 seconds, logged their asthma symptoms and triggers using a Qualtrics survey created by the study team, and confirmed if no symptoms were experienced. At the end of the study, data from the tool will be analyzed to determine any correlation to particulate matter exposure or size correlation to patient reported symptoms.
The Solution
The final report for this project is not complete, so please check back at a later time for more information about the outcomes of this project.
