Final Project: Competitive Technologies and Reverse Engineering

T-Haler: A competitive technology and its design

Within the asthma market, it is expected that doctors and pharmacies offer patients a training session upon prescribing or distributing an inhaler for treatment (Kamps, 2000). This type of training must be viewed as the current market incumbent that would compete with InhaleSur in the market. Cambridge Consultants, a technology design and development firm, has created an asthma inhaler training device called the “T-Haler.”  Cambridge Consultants "develops breakthrough products, creates and licenses intellectual property, and provides business consultancy in technology critical issues for clients worldwide (Cambridge Consultants, 2012). The product is an interactive training “game” that wirelessly monitors whether the patient has shaken the inhaler, the force with which they breathed in, and when the canister is pressed down to release the drug (Cambridge Consultants, 2012).  The T-haler uses a unique combination of sensors and wireless transmitting technology to function.  This technology was just released in March 2012; it is not yet officially on the market for sale. As such, no public list price is available. The website for the product promotes that the T-Haler doubles the compliance rates for inhaler protocol use.

REVERSE ENGINEERING ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES

When entering a market, one must consider the advantages and disadvantages competitor products offer. The T-Haler offers an advantage compared to doctors and pharmacies that provide inhaler training through staff personnel because the T-Haler minimizes the time and resources required by employees to individually train each patient. However, this tool is only a training device and is intended for use as a tool in doctors’ offices, pharmacies, and clinics. The T-Haler is at a disadvantage compared to InhaleSur because InhaleSur is designed to stay with the patient over the entire course of treatment, not just an initial training period. InhaleSur is available for at home use. Additionally, while the T-Haler currently provides feedback on other factors of inhaler protocol, there is no reason why future iterations of InhaleSur could not alert the user in real-time to other factors like inhalation force (with a simple gas pressure sensor) or the time the canister is compressed. Proof-of-concept of the shaking feature demonstrates that these elements can be monitored on a simple microcontroller device, so InhaleSur will be able to successfully compete in the asthma inhaler market space. The blog posts will provide a detailed explanation of InhaleSur’s functionality.