CHICAGO - November 9, 2020 - (Newswire.com)
EPA, Mobile Care Chicago, and Inspirotec (AirAnswersTM) are co-sponsoring a breakthrough Chicagoland clinical study to provide tele-med tools for neighborhoods suffering from allergy and asthma complicated by the COVID-19 pandemic with the patented AirAnswer's plug-and-play, in-home, airborne allergens, bacteria, and virus filter-less collection system. The goal of the study is to demonstrate effective allergy and asthma healthcare for patients and reducing hospital visits to leverage the Mobile Care Chicago Asthma Vans network, which began using telehealth in 2018.
Mobile Care Chicago and Inspirotec have teamed up to provide virtual, no-cost, home environment assessments for those with asthma and/or allergies in the Chicagoland area. Asthma is currently the most common chronic illness affecting children in low-income areas, and over 75% of children with asthma have "allergy-induced" asthma where constriction of airways is triggered by airborne allergens. Asthma is a leading cause of emergency department utilization in children, and can be fatal if left untreated.
Home environment assessments by Asthma Educators, when paired with medical care, allow families to understand and remove potential triggers from their home, such as dust mites, mold, tobacco smoke, cleaning products, and more.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 5 in 2017-18, the organization co-sponsoring, has focused on successful high-intensity interventions for children with the most severe and hard to control asthma. The EPAs involvement is based upon "Bases for Achievement of Outcomes Alignment" with EPA strategic priorities, and an especial emphasis is given to, "reducing contaminants that can cause or exacerbate health issues." The addition of AirAnswers as means for remote assessment of the home environment has received IRB approval from CIRBI (Center for IRB intelligence), paving the way to publication of findings in peer-reviewed scientific literature.
Mobile Care Chicago's in-person home environment assessment program, started in 2012, has won three national awards for using a combination of home environment assessments and direct specialty care to cut ER utilization among Mobile Care Chicago's asthma patients to less than 5%.
Inspirotec, Inc. is the only company providing airborne allergen detection either through physicians, industrial hygienists, indoor air quality professionals, home resale, or direct to consumer. It has developed a highly sensitive patented technology for testing and measuring biological agents in the air, including bacteria, viruses and specifically SARS-CoV-2.
With a pandemic and a rising infection rate, in-person assessments have been transitioned to virtual interviews. Inspirotec has developed new technology called AirAnswers, an air monitoring device which will allow Mobile Care Chicago to conduct virtual home assessments that include environmental exposure data for the first time.
"Home air quality is one of the most crucial factors in controlling asthma episodes," said Matt Siemer, Mobile Care Chicago's Executive Director. "Research has long demonstrated that home environment assessments transform lives for people with asthma, but in the pandemic those in-person assessments aren't safe. AirAnswers allows us to understand the air our patients are breathing, and to structure our interventions and treatment plans based on their lived reality. Once we know what allergens are in the air, it's so much easier to structure solutions to get asthma triggers out of the child's environment. We're excited to be working with Tom and the Inspirotec team to bring AirAnswers to our patient families."
Inspirotec's mission is to deliver the most personalized prevention and management solutions for allergies, asthma and respiratory conditions. Mobile Care Chicago has a fleet of mobile medical clinics, with an award-winning mobile Asthma program. Mobile Care Chicago's mission is to deliver no-cost medical and preventative care, education, and support to low-income children and families within their communities aboard mobile medical clinics.
Through this partnership, Inspirotec and Mobile Care Chicago plan to open home environmental assessments to 75 families in 2021, using the AirAnswers device. Concurrently, a clinical study will be conducted to see if utilizing AirAnswers raises Asthma Control Test scores and lowers ER utilization & hospitalizations in participating families.
Those who are interested in receiving a free, virtual, home environment assessment should contact:
Rachel Lessing
rlessing@mobilecarechicago.org
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Original Source: Inspirotec and Mobile Care Chicago Partner to Provide Free Virtual Home Environment Assessments for Children With Asthma Amid COVID-19 Pandemic
