Challenges for the Future!! Part 3 Final Episode: Wanting to be Kind to All Asthma Patients #05] ── And August 2035 - Toward the Future of Breathing -

The names of the people and facilities appearing in the following story are all fictional.

August 2035.
Even under the strong summer sun, the breathing of the people passing through the streets was calm.

Ten years ago, Asthma CO2 Deri 2025, developed as a groundbreaking mask-type asthma medication at the time, spread throughout the world while showing clear effectiveness but still carrying several challenges.

The biggest challenge was the inactivation of liposome components due to "wetting."

Rain, sweat, humidity—
These common sources of moisture in daily life were shaking the reliability of this treatment.

◽️ The moment technology overcame the wall

The development team at the time, led by Endo, made the decision to reconsider the material itself.
The choice was a nanofiber material using electrospinning technology.

The dense structure created by these ultra-fine fibers:
• Consisted of a high-performance filter layer that captures viruses and fine particles with high efficiency,
• Possessed waterproof and water-repellent properties to repel water droplets and protect the interior,
• And yet, also possessed moisture permeability that did not hinder breathing,

achieving these contradictory performances simultaneously.

With the filter born from this new material,
a "mask-type asthma medication where liposomes do not become inactivated even when wet" was born.

The product was named Asthma CO2 Deri Evolve.
The following year, Endo, who had led the development team until then, left the research institute for a university in Tokyo.

"It is time to entrust this to the younger generation."
Saying this, he handed the torch of research to the next generation.
◽️ Thoughts are passed on


The following year, the thoughts were passed on to a young researcher at the institute.

Kazuyo Ikeda.
The girl who had once watched her mother, Kaoruko, suffer from asthma up close,

had changed her position from the "one being saved" to the "one providing support," and had grown.
And now, 2035.

The leader of the development team was Satoshi Takenaka, a junior colleague of Endo.
Junichi Kitagawa, who had been Endo's rival, had been appointed as the director of the research institute.
One day, in the director's office, Kitagawa brought up a point to Takenaka and Ikeda.

"Regarding the problem of it being used even after the expiration date... this can be solved with software."

The virus protection glasses that Kitagawa himself had worked on in the past had already merged with smart glasses and become a part of life's infrastructure.
"Let's incorporate an expiration date management app for the mask-type asthma medication into the OS of these smart glasses."

Takenaka answered immediately.
"Please, let us do it."

Ikeda followed.
"I will coordinate with the smart glasses development team immediately."

◽️ Toward a treatment for everyone

That year, the scenery of the city changed.

People commuting.
Elderly people returning from shopping.
Students on their way to school.

Many people, naturally and as a matter of course,
were wearing the mask-type asthma medication.

The product name was
BreathEaseMasAll.

The final "All" contains the thought,
"I want this to be a treatment for everyone."
◽️ The next challenge was the Earth...


One day, Kazuyo Ikeda, who was watching the news on TV in the laboratory, was glued to the screen.

—Number of asthma patients in the US exceeds 30 million

—HFA used in inhalers is a powerful greenhouse gas
—One unit is equivalent to the emissions of a car for several thousand kilometers
"This... we have to do something about this immediately."

At those words, Kitagawa nodded quietly.

"In the US, there is a patent system called 'Paper Example.' If it is a rationally predictable future, you can demonstrate it even before an experiment."

The technology to protect breathing was now taking on not only human health but also the future of the Earth.

◽️ And so, the dream continues


The mask-type asthma medication has not reached a single completed form.

Even so—
It has certainly eased someone's suffering and brought back someone's day until now.
The researcher's challenge.

The patient's wish.
The family's thoughts.
These overlap, and the future of breathing is moving forward today, quietly but surely.

For the next 10 years as well,

the dream I want to fulfill starts here.
-Part 3 Mask-type Asthma Medication Edition- End

[As a conclusion to the 3-part medical series]
● To medical professionals

Medicine is not completed by technology alone.
I believe that the discomfort felt in the field and the question of "can't we do something more" are the driving forces that create the next new medicine.
I hope that these various stories will be a small trigger for envisioning the future in your daily clinical practice and research.

● To general readers

Advances in medicine are by no means happening only in distant laboratories.
The future quietly begins to move from our feeling of wanting to "do something" when we see someone's suffering.
The medicine that supports someone close to you someday may also be born from such thoughts.

[Looking back on the 3-part medical series]
Thank you for reading until the end.

The "Dreams I Want to Fulfill" 3-part medical series has depicted a future of "I wish it were like this" as a story, while basing it on existing technology and research.
However, these stories are by no means fantasy, but are "stories of a future that can become reality" that are already budding somewhere.

Medicine is not something that is completed, but something that continues to be updated every day.

And those updates always start from our human thoughts.
If these stories lead to time for everyone to think about their own "dreams they want to fulfill," there is nothing I would be happier about.

■ Nurse Call System

The first theme was the unspoken voice of the medical field.
Patients cannot call when they want to call,
medical professionals cannot notice even when they want to notice.

Can technology gently approach that,
and realize "medicine that does not leave patients behind"? Can medical workers work more easily?
It was a theme to rethink that the essence of medical DX is not efficiency, but "peace of mind."

■ Virus Protection Glasses

Next, I depicted infection control that blends into daily life.
It was a theme of questioning the existence of masks, which are taken for granted, and asking if "protective medicine" could be made in a more natural form.

Invisible viruses and invisible peace of mind.
I think the future of implementing this as "wearable medicine" is something I could only depict because I experienced the COVID-19 pandemic.

■ Mask-type Asthma Medication

And finally, medicine that supports breathing itself.
Starting from the origin of a family's suffering, I took into account the continuity of treatment, psychological burden, side effects, and even the global environment.

Medicine that not only cures, but makes life easier.
It was medicine that aimed to be close to the patient's life.

■ Dreams become someone's reality

I don't think "Dreams I Want to Fulfill" is a series that predicts the future.

I think it is a story for "thinking" about the future.

Whether you are involved in medicine or not, if you were able to think even a little bit, "I wish it were like this," somewhere in this story,
at that moment, the dream is one step closer to reality.

This medical series ends here.
However, the dream I want to fulfill itself is not over yet.

Surely, surely, to fulfill that dream...

And, that I am kept alive by heaven...