GPS Inhalers to track asthma triggers

Researcher hopes to learn when and where asthma attacks strike using GPS
Where asthma strikes, medical inhalers follow. Which got one disease detective thinking: Could asthma triggers be tracked via GPS technology?
Enterprising epidemiologist David Van Sickle at the University of Wisconsin-Madison decided to find out. He recruited four asthmatic undergraduates to carry around inhalers outfitted to relay location data when they were being used, via the Global Positioning System satellite network. The test successfully demonstrated the concept and gave Van Sickle footing — and funding — for a pilot program now under way in the city of Madison, Wis.
The device is now about the size of a nine-volt battery. And the weight, said Van Sickle, "is insignificant."
Current versions have additional technology to relay positioning data from inside buildings, a constraint that impacts most satellite-only receivers. Eventually, Van Sickle, who previously worked for the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, would like to have thousands of people using the GPS-equipped inhalers so that accurate statistics can be complied about when and where asthma strikes.
"Asthma is unique in that people carry their inhalers around with them and use them at the time and place when they are having symptoms," Van Sickler said.
Read full article at: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30091047/