“Siri, Should I Go Outside?”
Smartphones have made their way into every corner of the health industry – witness apps like this and this. One of the fascinating things about these devices is how they are able to compensate digitally for sensors they don’t actually possess: today’s phones can tell you your current altitude by calculating GPS, for instance, or take your pulse by noting the vibrations within the camera’s image.
A number of apps pull of a similar trick for allergy sufferers. One of the most popular of these is an app called Smoggy, which does precisely what you might imagine: supply pollution figures and warnings for any region, on any day:
The app lets you use your current location or enter a zip code or city, and you can add multiple locations. For each location, it shows you the Air Quality Index, Particulate Matter, and Ozone. Tap on any of these three readings to get a description of what it is measuring.
Studies show that these figures correlate closely with the symptoms of allergic rhinitis, so having such data at your fingertips can save you a good amount of distress.
What should you do if the symptoms persist even when the air is clear? Contact an ENT for a more detailed consultation.
Tags: allergies, apps, beverly hills ent, rhinitis, smartphones
