Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)
Overview of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)
COPD, caused by smoking and air pollution, irreversibly destroys lung tissue, causing progressive difficulty in breathing and leaving patients susceptible to infection. It is one of the leading causes of hospital admission and is now the 3rd highest cause of death worldwide (WHO).
Though not curable, it is treatable through a range of pharmaceutical and therapeutic interventions. At present, many patients are unable to receive specialist care – there is a global shortage of respiratory specialists and, with treatment becoming increasingly complex, tailored management based on real-time symptoms is an enormous unmet need.
In 2019, 3.23 million people worldwide died from COPD. This trend is expected to increase upwards due to worsening air pollution
Inhaled pharmaceuticals are the mainstay of treatment. However, these are expensive treatments that many cannot afford.
As well as shortness of breath, fatigue and chronic cough, patients with COPD are more prone to infection.
Infection is the most common cause of hospital admission as patients require oxygen therapy and ventilatory support.
PneumoWave Platform
Existing platforms for monitoring COPD commonly rely on spot-checks of data such as spirometry captured alongside patient reported outcomes. Spirometry can be unpleasant to perform in moderate to severe COPD and subjective reporting of symptoms can be difficult to interpret. Data is collected for retrospective analysis by a clinician, placing a burden on services that are commonly short-staffed.
PneumoWave is developing technology that passively captures respiratory data through a small, chest-worn wearable biosensor. Able to analyse in real-time, PneumoWave aims to detect the earliest signs of deterioration, and notify patients and physicians when a problem is evident. This allows rapid treatment with the potential to reduce or shorten hospital admissions.
Undergoing development and evaluation in a range of clinical trials, PneumoWave is currently establishing the performance characteristics of this technology prior to regulatory clearance as a Class 2 Medical Device.
PneumoWave’s technology is currently undergoing development and evaluation in clinical trials. Performance characteristics have yet to be established.
