Positive Whistle

Project Partner

Tyler VanDyke, a former Purdue BME, and a current med student. He has worked with pediatric patients in the past and recognized that many are using their asthma inhaler spacer incorrectly. The spacer is used to prevent people from inhaling too fast, which makes the medication not reach the bronchioles and smaller lung regions, which is where the medication needs to go. It has a whistle to warn when people are inhaling too strongly, but kids misinterpret it as positive reinforcement rather than negative. He has raised this as an issue and is now working with us to create a design that fixes that issue.

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Motivation

Patients in pediatric health care commonly misuse inhalers and inhaler spacers. We need to create a spacer with positive reinforcement to allow for proper drug intake.

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Current Members

Tommy Holland, Maneesh Balla, Akhil Pinnapareddy, Alexa Risk, & Mallory Buck