FlowMate

Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease affecting 25 million Americans, including seven million children. Current treatments include anti-inflammatory drugs delivered directly to the lungs, mainly through inhalers. There is a relatively novel type of inhaler called a dry powder inhaler (DPI) that dispels dry powdered medication upon inhalation. However, a staggering 32% of four- to nine-year-olds are unable to generate the 60 L/min required to receive adequate dosage of medication when using a DPI. Thus, a method of ensuring consistent and adequate drug deposition in the lungs from DPIs is needed in order to reduce chronic asthma symptoms in children. In order to bypass the need for patient-generated inspiratory flow in standard DPIs, active DPIs have been developed. These active devices use an energy source external to the patient to create aerosol dispersion and dislodge the drug from the powder bed or canister. However, these products have all been unsuccessful due to their complexity, high expense, and vulnerability to failure due to their dependence on outside energy sources and user-unfriendly designs. We have designed an attachable adaptor that will allow patients to reach the sufficient inspiratory flow to dislodge the medication from the inhaler and into their lungs. We hope that our device will help children alleviate their asthma symptoms.