How Shoemaker’s Protocol and Real‑Time Air Testing Work Together

For some people living with suspected Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (CIRS), the Shoemaker Protocol offers a structured way to organize symptoms, laboratory findings, and environmental history. It is one of several proposed approaches and is not considered a universally accepted standard of care. Treatment decisions related to CIRS, including whether to use the Shoemaker Protocol, should always be made between patients and their healthcare providers.

Our role is different: we focus on the building side—providing real‑time, multi‑parameter indoor air information that patients and clinicians can choose to incorporate into their overall decision‑making.

The Emphasis on Reducing Exposure

A core idea within CIRS‑oriented care, including the Shoemaker framework, is that ongoing exposure to water‑damaged or mold‑affected environments may make recovery more difficult. The general principle is that it is harder for the body to stabilize if someone continues to breathe air from a problematic building day after day.

In practice, this raises very practical questions:

• Is my home, office, or school contributing to my symptoms?

• Are there specific rooms or systems (for example, HVAC) that may be more concerning than others?

• After remediation, is the air meaningfully different from before?

Conventional sampling methods can provide useful information, but they often offer delayed, limited snapshots. Real‑time, multi‑parameter indoor air inspection is designed to add more detailed, immediate feedback about what is actually in the air.

How Real‑Time, 11‑Parameter Inspection Can Support CIRS‑Oriented Care

The Shoemaker Protocol and other CIRS‑related approaches often involve steps such as: clarifying exposure history, assessing symptom patterns, using tools like the Visual Contrast Sensitivity (VCS) test, and ordering specific lab panels. Environmental information can be one more piece of that puzzle.

Our 11‑parameter inspection can support this broader process in several ways:

1. Helping Clarify Whether a Building Is Likely Part of the Problem

Before anyone can meaningfully “reduce exposure,” they need to understand which environments may be contributing. A real‑time inspection can:

• Compare outdoor air to each room’s air in real time

• Identify rooms where biological particle activity appears elevated relative to a baseline area

• Focus on spaces where the person spends most of their time (bedrooms, main living areas, workspaces)

These findings do not diagnose CIRS or prove causation, but they can help patients and clinicians discuss whether a particular building plausibly fits into the exposure story.

2. Providing More Targeted Input for Remediation Plans

When issues are suspected, many people face the challenge of deciding where and how to remediate. Rather than guessing or treating the entire structure the same way, real‑time inspection data can:

• Highlight potential “hotspots” (specific rooms, zones, or systems that appear to drive much of the airborne load)

• Show how disturbing carpets, soft furnishings, or HVAC systems changes airborne activity in the moment

• Give remediators more concrete priorities instead of very broad instructions

This kind of information does not replace professional judgment, but it can help make remediation efforts more focused and potentially more efficient.

3. Checking Whether Conditions Have Improved After Work Is Done

For people following any structured medical approach, it is natural to want objective confirmation that the environment has changed, not just a subjective sense that things “feel better.”

With a real‑time, 11‑parameter inspection, it is possible to:

• Document baseline airborne conditions before remediation

• Revisit the same locations after work is complete

• Compare those measurements to see whether airborne biological activity appears closer to typical background patterns

These before‑and‑after data can then be shared with the patient’s clinician alongside follow‑up VCS tests and lab work, as one more piece of context.

Linking Building Data With VCS and Labs

CIRS‑related care often uses tools such as:

• VCS testing to assess visual contrast sensitivity

• Panels of inflammatory and regulatory markers

• Detailed exposure and symptom histories

Together, those focus on what is happening inside the body. Building assessments add another dimension: what the person may be breathing in day to day.

Used in parallel:

• VCS and lab results can suggest whether the body may still be reacting to something.

• Real‑time indoor air data can help explore whether specific environments might reasonably be contributing to that ongoing exposure.

This does not confirm or rule out any diagnosis on its own, but it can make conversations between patients, clinicians, and remediators more concrete.

Important Disclaimers

• We do not diagnose CIRS or any medical condition.

• We do not interpret medical tests, recommend medications, or provide medical advice.

• We do not claim that any specific medical protocol—including the Shoemaker Protocol—will be effective for any individual.

Our services are limited to environmental assessment. The information we provide is intended to be one piece of a larger picture that patients and their licensed healthcare providers can consider together when making clinical and environmental decisions.